Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Arís, ardaíonn sé seo ceist an-suimiúil ó thaobh eolas atá ar fáil don phobal. This raises an important issue about transparency and openness, especially in the current atmosphere. It calls for the powers of the Ombudsman and Freedom of Information Acts to be extended to the Central Bank.

There has been much debate in the Seanad in the past couple of weeks on the powers of the Ombudsman. I think the Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2008 is coming to this committee as well. It might be appropriate to discuss this issue here to see if it is possible and suitable to extend the powers of the Ombudsman to the Central Bank, and also to look at the development of the Freedom of Information Acts and to speak to the Minister about that to ascertain whether there is any reason the Central Bank should be exempt from either of those two pieces of legislation. It is an interesting concept in principle that the Central Bank should have such openness and transparency included in its works and one my party would be open to discuss here.