Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will try to keep my comments brief. I also welcome the Minister to the House. Sinn Féin welcomes the inquiry into the bank guarantee as it provides an opportunity to delve into those aspects of the bank guarantee and the financial crisis that have not been explored in detail to date and to get to the crux of the power in the Irish State. The terms of reference of the inquiry were quite explicit in that it states it must look at the relationships between State authorities, political parties, elected representatives, supervisory authorities, banking institutions and the property sector. It is these relationships, namely, the nexus of banks, developers and the State, that give the people an opportunity to examine both decisions surrounding the guarantee and the financial and political relationships that made possible such decisions. This is new, as none of the four reports published to date have considered these relationships in detail and they are key to our understanding of the manner in which power operates in the State.

In order to do this, the inquiry must step back from the night of the guarantee and must consider matters over a longer timeframe. For example, it is known that from the fall of Northern Rock in September 2007, the Financial Regulator, the Central Bank of Ireland and the Department of Finance were all discussing possible scenarios that could play out within the banking system in Ireland. There is also a demand from the public to have appear before the joint committee those who were operating the levers of power at the time, be they developers, politicians, bankers or officials. This has not happened previously and this Bill will play a small but not insignificant role in that process. It will allow joint committee members to access that confidential information which otherwise would not be available to them and this is welcome. While the information covered by this Bill will remain confidential, it nonetheless forms part of a wider process of trying to uncover the truth of what happened on the night of the guarantee, in the years leading up to the decision and essentially, in the years that followed. Consequently, Sinn Féin welcomes this Bill and will support it.