Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sticking to the subject. It is all relative, a Cheann Comhairle. We are getting one piece of legislation after another to damn the people. To hell or to Connacht, or wherever. It is unbelievable.

Article 40.1 states:

All citizens shall, as human persons, be held equal before the law.

This shall not be held to mean that the State shall not in its enactments have due regard to differences of capacity, physical and moral, and of social function.

Article 40.3.1^o states: "The State guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate the personal rights of the citizen." The Government has abandoned the people. It has told them to go to the courts, and it is trying to make the judges be negotiators or mediators. A mediation Bill is proposed. There are professional mediators who could help but that Bill will not be moved on because it might upset vested interests in the legal progression.

Article 40.3.2^o states: "The State shall, in particular, by its laws protect as best it may from unjust attack". Article 43.1.1^o states: "The State acknowledges that man, in virtue of his rational being, has the natural right". Article 43.1.2^o states: "The State accordingly guarantees to pass no law attempting to abolish the right of private ownership or the general right to transfer, bequeath, and inherit property." However, here we are at the beck and call of the banks which condemned the Dunne judgment because they say it is a loophole. It is not a loophole. It is the law, and the good Ms Justice Dunne was only upholding the laws of the land, but we will browbeat her.

We are facilitating corrupt, unlicensed financial institutions above the needs of citizens. That is happening every hour of every day in this country. Some months ago I occupied a bank in this city because of the way it treated people in Wexford. They waved a hire purchase agreement at me and told me that was more powerful than any court order. That is the arrogance and contempt they display because they know they will get away with it. The managing director of that particular bank told me and six other people, two of whom had been severely beaten and a boy of 15 who was almost killed on the side of the road.

We are bringing in legislation that will give legal credence to assisting fraudulent financial institutions. That beggars belief. It would not happen in any other country. This must be the greatest banana republic of all time.

Current mortgage agreements are in contravention of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Directive 93/13/EC. That is a directive of the European Union - then called the European Economic Community - governing the use of surprising or onerous terms by business in dealings with consumers, but we will pass this law and another law just to suit these people. We passed financial resolutions here the night we debated the promissory notes legislation. I spoke against it. I tried to table an amendment. Following the debate I crossed the floor to speak to the Taoiseach, Deputy Kenny, and the Minister, Deputy Noonan. I told them what they had done to Seán Quinn and the other people who had court cases pending against IBRC that they could not continue because of that legislation. Any eejit would know that. A person has a right to go to court but we simply banished that right. Thankfully, Seán Quinn was able to go to the courts because he could afford it and challenge that. It was total nonsense. If I or anyone else had a court case pending, we could not pass a law here to deny the rights of any citizen.

This Government is punch-drunk believing it can do what it wishes at the behest of the bankers, the chancers, the gangsters, the speculators and the people who wreaked havoc on the country. They destroyed the country, and not one of them has been arraigned. The former Minister of State, Ned O'Keeffe, was brought before the courts in full view of the television cameras for some discrepancy involving some €100. I do not know whether he is guilty or not. That will be decided in time.

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