Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Cathaoirleach will have been aware of job losses in recent days at Aurivo, a co-operative in the north west. Against its own ethos, Aurivo now plans to produce butter in Cork instead of Connacht. It was originally the North Connacht Farmers' Co-operative Society. In addition, 37 jobs will be lost at Avantcard. If we add up all the retail businesses, restaurants and bars in the small towns of the north west, we can see many hundreds of job losses that have not reached the national media in recent times.

I am calling for the establishment of a strategic employment task force for that region, a proposal I am sure is supported by many colleagues throughout the north west. Some 46% of Ireland's total GNP is produced in the greater Dublin region. This is not sustainable for the Dublin region and is not fair on the rest of the economy.

I would like to see the establishment of a strategic employment task force with clear powers in respect of strategic investment in broadband, motorway infrastructure and the urgent development of the north west university of technology. These are three tangible inputs, as opposed to glossy brochures filled with promises, that can take pressure off this region which is responsible for almost 15% of our national GNP and create much-needed employment in the north west. It is not too much to ask for. Indeed the same could be done for the Leader's region and some of the pressures taken off the greater Dublin area.

This is urgent and should be done. It should not just be a strategic task force in name only but should be one that is empowered and provided with the significant resources that are required to do those three things: broadband, motorway infrastructure and the university of technology for the north west. These are three issues of access: education, transportation and information technology. I ask the Leader to take that on board and pass it on to the Taoiseach.

The main point I want to raise today concerns the commission of inquiry into IBRC. It is simply not credible to this side of the House that the Department of Finance, the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance are saying that problems only emerged last Thursday relating to whether or not documentation or evidence would be treated as private in the context of documentation provided to Judge Brian Cregan by the Department of Finance or IBRC. I have a copy of a newspaper article from 22 August 2015 written by Cliff Taylor.The headline read, "Legal issues could delay statutory inquiry into IBRC". Clearly, it is not credible for the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance and his officials to claim that they were unaware of these issues until last Thursday. That is factually incorrect. What is the position as things stand? How quickly can emergency legislation be introduced to ensure this work can be completed by the end of the year? Clearly, there was advice from the Attorney General. I suggest the State would benefit from that advice being published, given that almost €1 billion of the people's money is involved. Perhaps there is nothing to see, as Ministers have suggested, but evidence elsewhere in the public domain gives us cause to wonder. At an absolute minimum, the people are entitled to know why a write-down of €119 million was afforded in the context of the sale of Siteserv.

Obviously, the commission of investigation is also to investigate 37 other IBRC transactions of over €10 million. It is imperative that the Siteserv transaction, in particular, be fully investigated and the outcome published in advance of a general election. With due respect to the Government, the Minister for Finance, the Department of Finance and IBRC, the people are entitled to know how €119 million of its money was potentially thrown away and squandered by the actions of departmental officials, the Minister, people in IBRC, the receivers or whomever. I ask the Leader to impress this point on the Taoiseach in the first instance. As soon as is humanly possible, we should debate the issue in the House.