Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Noonan, to the House. I thank him for his comprehensive and clear statement on the terms of reference for the commission of investigation, which is probably a week or ten days overdue. That said, I commend the Minister on the fact that he engaged with my party leader and with others in the Opposition and endeavoured, in so far as possible, to take their concerns on board and add extra items that should have been in the terms of reference from the beginning. It is crucially important that the IBRC wealth management unit is included as well as the relationship between IBRC and the Department, dating back to the time of the Minister's predecessor, the late Brian Lenihan. Ironically, today is the fourth anniversary of Brian's passing.

My concern and the concern of my party, which has pursued this over the last number of weeks alongside Deputy Catherine Murphy, other Deputies and colleagues in Sinn Féin, is that this is what is required. The people want to get to the bottom of this. One item that is missing is a date for publication of an interim report. We will continue to pursue that, and my party will write to the judge to ask him to issue an interim report. There is no reason that Siteserv cannot be dealt with as a distinct module.

There are many other issues. I have raised concerns in the House previously about IBRC and the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, although I will not complicate the discussion this evening by mentioning that. However, the liquidation of IBRC is something to do with this as well and setting a deadline for the closure and wind-up of NAMA can lead to fire sales and strange deals being done, because there is an end date on both. That is the reality. However, as leader of the Fianna Fáil group, I am interested first and foremost in getting the facts and ensuring that if there were problems, they are addressed. If deals have been done for people that should not have been done, we must know about that. All of this material is in the public arena, while one must not forget that there are thousands of ordinary mortgage holders and small businesses across Europe being treated abominably by this bank and others. They do not appear to have received any of the preferential treatment that it is alleged some businessmen and others received in their dealings with IBRC and, indeed, in other dealings. That is what people find so grossly unfair.

It is important that the commission of investigation be established. We support that and we support the terms of reference. As I said, we believe one element is missing and I believe the Government, even at this stage, should consider scheduling the investigation and setting a deadline for an interim report to be issued. I say this in the context of other commissions of investigation that the Government has established, particularly the Fennelly commission which should have reported already but is unlikely to report until after the general election, for very obvious reasons of which we are all aware. The Taoiseach was allowed to assign to that commission of investigation the resignation or sacking of the previous Garda Commissioner and his role in that, even though it had nothing to do with that commission of investigation. The Government's track record on commissions of investigation is not great.

The initial reaction of the Government, the Minister and the Department to the issues raised by Deputy Catherine Murphy and my party leader, Deputy Martin, Deputy Michael McGrath and others was not great initially, but that should be put aside so we can get down to the work that must be done. In the interests of transparency, once the commission is established I have no doubt that other items will be brought to the judge's attention. As a betting man I would say it is highly unlikely that this work could be finished by the end of this year and the judge will probably seek a further extension. We want the work to be completed properly.

Serious issues have been raised and serious allegations have been made that deserve investigation. I hope they are not correct; I hope the allegations are unfounded. If they are proven, very serious questions will have to be asked about both the Department's management of IBRC and how customers may have received preferential treatment. I hope that is not the case.

To conclude, I welcome that the Minister consulted widely and took other views on board. He has shown that he is able to expand the scope and take feedback on board. I wish that happened more often; it is good that it happened in this instance. Our party will support the establishment of the commission and the terms of reference before us but we will pursue separately with the judge, by way of formal correspondence, a commitment to issue an interim report. I again thank the Minister for outlining clearly and comprehensively the thought process behind the establishment of the commission. We will support it.