“Today’s further revelations about Anglo Irish Bank and how certain people, some with political connections through Fianna Fail, got large loans for property investment right up to the eve of financial collapse serve to highlight again the need for a comprehensive banking enquiry.

“Restoration of Ireland’s national and international reputation for probity in banking and finance is of paramount importance. 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).

“We need 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.

“People involved in the financial collapse, whether senior bankers, regulators, civil servants or Ministers, must be brought before the Oireachtas and compelled to explain their actions or lack thereof.

“This financial crisis was not of course a uniquely Irish phenomenon. Countries around the world have been hit with financial chaos as greedy bankers and speculators were allowed to run riot. In many jurisdictions, notably the US, the UK and around Europe, there has already been an extensive process of investigation into what went wrong.

“We have three authorities responsible for financial regulation in Ireland: Over the past decade, we had a Department of Finance, led by successive Ministers, which advocated ‘light touch’ regulation as a model to follow and piled up property-based tax breaks that fanned the flames of an overheating property market; we had a financial regulator who would make a fine case study for ‘regulatory capture’; and we had a Central Bank making all the right noises, but refusing to take any action.”