Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 6, between lines 16 and 17, to insert the following:"(j) to avoid procyclical investment cycles.".

I welcome the Minister to the House. When he was explaining the thrust of these proposals to us the last day, he placed great emphasis on the importance of avoiding pro-cyclical investment cycles. However, this objective is not included in the purposes of the Act, as set out in this section. The Leader said this morning, echoing the Minister's words, that this is the most important legislation since the creation of IDA Ireland. I thank the Minister's officials for the briefing they supplied. Unfortunately, we have been so busy in the House this week, I did not get time to go through it. I am putting forward this proposal in the hope that it will be of help to the Minister to include it. As I said, he referred to this issue in his Second Stage speech but it is not referenced in the legislation.

I think this amendment crossed with the Minister's speech. I know from his speech the Minister's concern about avoiding pro-cyclical investment cycles. Would it be of assistance to the Minister to include this amendment here? If he thinks it is covered elsewhere, that is fine by me. We must learn from the mistakes of the past. During that period the boom became "boomier" with 100% mortgages being given out and a massive expansion of credit. The Wright report states that the Department of Finance gave the appropriate warnings but they were ignored. Ireland obviously needs to avoid a repeat of what got us into the problem that the Oireachtas has been addressing since 2011. That is the spirt of my amendment. As we go forward with this major development, we must ensure that we do not go pro-cyclical, as this is the issue that will be on everybody's mind. Whether it is useful for the Minister to include what I propose in the amendment to the Bill is his call.