Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the contribution of Senator Denis O'Donovan not alone today on the Order of Business but as Chairman of the Seanad Committee on Selection. How dare those who hold the highest public office in the country try to denude or take away from his integrity in his role in that regard in the past two weeks or so. I also acknowledge the return to the Seanad of Senator David Norris who looks re-energised and ready for battle. During the past week to ten days, some people in politics have done the State a disservice. They have done the bankers a great service, but they have done the people and the State a disservice. Last weekend I met people in my constituency clinics who were struggling to hold on to their homes. The banks are riding roughshod over the code of conduct on mortgage arrears and using loopholes in that process to allow them to repossess family homes, even though people are trying to repay some of their mortgage liability. All the while, the Government which is supposed to govern and promised before the last general election that the bankers would be taken to task is engaged in political games. Three years plus on, not one banker has faced the barrel of scrutiny by the Government, yet in the establishment of a committee of both Houses to facilitate an inquiry into the banking sector political games of sabotage are being played. How dare the Taoiseach and Ministers who over the weekend, through various media outlets, sought to damage the credibility of the inquiry play into the hands of the bankers. The credibility, independence and usefulness of the banking inquiry has been called into question.

I am not so sure whether it is useful to proceed with the banking inquiry in its current format or whether it should be scrapped.