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Labour publishes text of Dáil Motion on Banking Inquiry

Issued : Friday 15 January, 2010

The Labour Party has today published the text of a Private Members Motion which will be taken in Private Members Time in the Dail next week calling for all necessary steps to be taken for the establishment of an inquiry by a committee of Dail Eireann into the banking crisis. The motion also calls for the restoration of full inquiry powers to Oireachtas committees by the enactment of legislation along the lines of the Bill, the Committee of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Powers of Inquiry) Bill, 2010, published by the Labour Party earlier this week.

The Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Spokesperson on Finance, Deputy Joan Burton, who will move the motion, said that there was now an unstoppable tide of opinion in favour of a full inquiry.

“Restoration of Ireland’s national and international reputation for probity in banking and finance is of paramount importance, and a full inquiry is crucial to this. We need a clean break with the days when Ireland unfortunately became known as the ‘Wild West of European Finance’ (New York Times, April 1st, 2005).

“The public is entitled to answers as to why our system failed so that we can ensure that the mistakes of the past are never repeated. In that sense, the establishment of a banking enquiry is as much about the future as it is about the past.

“Even the government has now backed down in the face of the tide of support for an inquiry and dropped its earlier opposition, but I suspect that their tactics will now be to delay the holding of an inquiry for as long as possible.

“However, the Labour Party believes it is a matter of urgency that we establish the truth in relation to the sequence of events that led to the exposure of the Irish taxpayer to a potential risk of more than €400bn as a result of the bank guarantee and required the pumping of €11bn of taxpayers money into the banks with the prospect of yet more to come during 2010.

“This motion and the Bill we have earlier published provides a framework for an efficient and cost effective process for establishing the truth. I hope that the government will agree to this motion next week. A number of months of preparatory work would then be required. The aim should be to have hearings in the late Spring or early Summer and the publication of the report by the Autumn.

“If we are to restore public confidence in the banking system, it is essential that we find out exactly what when wrong and then take appropriate steps to ensure that it can never happen again. This will be crucial to restoring public confidence in the Irish banking system at home and abroad. The passing of the Labour motion should be the first step in this process”