Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Part of the dilemma with this petitioner is that he has come mid-stream. He is still in negotiation and contact with the Ombudsman. Moreover, there is an issue with the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Act and the potential for the Ombudsman to have some oversight of the Central Bank. There are three streams of unfinished business. In a way it is almost as if the petition in its essence is one we should address because it relates to greater transparency in the Central Bank, but this particular petition would pose us some difficulty because it is surrounded by things that are ongoing, in particular, as Deputy Healy-Rae noted, the fact that the business he has with the Ombudsman is private and he does not want us to have anything to do with that. I maintain we should keep his petition open. I suspect we may receive other similar petitions and we need to keep it open because of the Freedom of Information aspect and because we will be discussing the Ombudsman's potential relationship with the Central Bank. Therefore, we should keep an eye on this and if others come along behind it, they could form part of a greater debate about transparency in the Central Bank.