Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

On the anniversary of the death of the late Brian Lenihan, we should all reflect on the contribution he made to political life in the country and the part he played in resolving the crisis the country faced. I very much respect the role played by Deputy Catherine Murphy in this entire matter, as well as the roles played by Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, the Labour Party and the Minister. This is a very important issue and I do not believe we can move on from the banking crisis, in the investigation of which two of our colleagues are involved, without investigating fully all of the issues that arise. I welcome them back to the House. As colleagues on the coalition benches, we do not see as much of Senator Michael D'Arcy as we used to.

While I do not particularly agree with it, in a number of media reports the point has been made that strange times led to difficult decisions and that it is very difficult to put values on assets and put in perspective things that happen in the middle of a crisis. We have heard that excuse made about activities in industrial schools, about what happened in the 1950s and in Galway which resulted in the deaths of young children and so forth. That is not good enough. It is not good enough to walk away from any suggestion the Government and the country walked away in situations where people who had money became even richer after a disaster hit the population of the country. It is a complicating factor that one of the individuals involved in this entire debacle, certainly in a number of court actions, is a significant and wealthy public figure.The figure has a strong presence in the Irish media. Therefore, it behoves us even more as parliamentarians to make sure that we put in place robust processes and procedures. We must ensure that decisions that were taken by a bank, that was under State control, its actions, processes and procedures were absolutely, completely and entirely robust.

A question has been raised, particularly by Sinn Féin, about whether the terms of reference will cover the essential issues that have been raised, particularly the timing. I shall address the issue of the terms of reference for a moment. The first point was made about the actual document SI No., which has been left blank, of 2015. The first paragraph details the areas that shall be covered by the commission of investigation and the stipulated time period has raised some concern. It reads:

1. The Commission shall investigate all transactions, activities and management decisions, other than those relating solely to the acquisition of assets by the National Asset Management Agency, which occurred between 21 January 2009 (being the date of the nationalisation of IBRC) and 7 February 2013 (being the date of the appointment of the Special Liquidators to IBRC).

There is a concern that those dates will not adequately cover some of the issues that have been raised.

I must admit that I examined this document very carefully and was comforted, and perhaps the Minister has addressed the matter, by paragraph 6(b) of the terms of reference which states: "where a contractual obligation was agreed during the Relevant Period", the date that I just mentioned, "but not executed until after the Relevant Period then the contract and any resulting loss shall be regarded as having been made during the Relevant Period." More important, the terms of reference sets out the following:

4. The Commission shall report on any other matters of concern arising from its investigation of the above matters and make any further recommendations as the Commission sees fit.

I have spent some time looking through this document and I am personally satisfied that it covers the issues raised. I am satisfied that it is broad enough and robust enough to cover the issues with the terms of reference that I have heard raised in the Dáil debate and in the media at large.

It is important to note that the judge concerned, Mr. Justice O'Keeffe, has a significant commercial background. That is an extremely important aspect.

As the Minister has said, it is incredibly important that the investigation is sufficiently resourced. No matter what way one puts it, ordinary people and taxpayers have been put on the line and must pay for what happened in this country. We must also reflect on the fact that many ordinary people have lost everything as a result of what happened in this country during the banking crisis. We owe them the truth and I believe the truth is the truth. I personally do not care how much it costs to get to the bottom of the matter, particularly when accusations have been made that people in positions of privilege and importance manipulated a system and came out of the other end of a disaster practically in a better position than they were in originally. Therefore, we owe ordinary people the truth. I ask the Minister to please ensure that adequate resources are made available for the commission and I do not think the timeline should be a moveable feast. The findings must be delivered in the timescale outlined which is what the people expect.