Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join with other Senators in complimenting our colleagues in the Seanad who served on the banking inquiry.They did Trojan work, as did Members from the Lower House. It shows how important the Members of this House are to the democratic process. They were not in any way outshone by Members of the Lower House. My office is just a few doors away from Senator MacSharry's and I witnessed the amount of work he put in to the inquiry along with his staff, particularly Mr. Aidan O'Connor.

I look forward to reading the inquiry's report in due course, perhaps in my retirement, but I wish to comment upon it now. The Financial Regulator and the Central Bank obviously come in for quite a bit of criticism, which, I believe, is justifiable. One of the big scandals which I criticised at the time was that the head of the financial regulatory authority walked away with €600,000. We need to bring culpability into our public service, particularly for people who are on exceptionally high six-figure salaries. If a dereliction of duty occurs in the private sector - no matter at what level but especially at that of CEO - the individual involved would be dismissed and replaced. We need to get that culture into the public sector in order to improve performance levels in key areas. We have paid a huge price for this omission.

I am sure the report will cover the appalling decision made by the European Central Bank to take the side of bondholders over the interests of Irish taxpayers. I pay tribute to Senator Barrett. I read his very good and clearly set out minority comments regarding the report. The report, and the Senator's comments, are worthy of debate in this House. Even if the election is called next Tuesday, I hope the House will sit for three days next week to hold a debate on the banking inquiry and a badly-needed debate on housing. That would form part of an input into policy formulation for the incoming Government.

I agree with Senator Daly. If there was an EU treaty referendum in the morning, regardless of its subject matter, there would be major difficulties in getting the public to support it. The banking crisis has left a legacy of hostility toward the EU and it has not come out of the situation in any sort of good light. Even at this late stage, I ask that an attempt at burden-sharing be made. There is no reason the Irish taxpayer should be singled out from all the taxpayers in Europe to take on the burden of what ultimately became the saviour of the euro currency.