Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The politburo of the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform has colluded to try to damage the reputation of the House and the Committee of Selection. It has scored a spectacular own goal, which no own goal in the World Cup will rival. In scoring this own goal, they have tried to attack individuals in this House. There was an attempt to assassinate the character of one of the nominees, Senator MacSharry. There were also attempts to damage the workings of the Committee of Selection and to say the House did not know what it was doing. Has the Leader a line of communication open to the politburo in the Lower House? I am sure the Taoiseach was involved in this appointment. The Tánaiste, the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform and the Taoiseach are smarting and hurting because of the own goal that was scored. The committee system was set up more than 20 years ago and it is unprecedented to enlarge the membership of a committee to ensure the politburo gets it way, has a majority and can dictate the terms of the reference of the inquiry. They will try to project and gauge the outcome of the inquiry and set it out in such a way that it will be politically damaging to Fianna Fáil more so than others.

There was a suggestion that the membership of the inquiry committee would reflect the numbers in both Houses. If that was the case, why were the 14-member Fianna Fáil group, Sinn Féin, the Independents and others not consulted about who should be the Opposition spokesperson? While I do not want to go down that road, it is imperative that we get to this because the banking inquiry has been damaged in the eyes of the public. The continuing remarks, which are offensive to me and many other Senators, by the Tánaiste and the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, who are all within the politburo of the Government, are trying to do down what happened at the Committee of Selection and this is only adding to the fact that they were caught out trying to engineer the inquiry. They have spectacularly failed and the public will state that to them.

I would like to put on record my admiration for Deputy Donnelly for having the wisdom, good faith and trust to stand down from the committee, which has a particular agenda and motive.