John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The same applies to the Central Bank, in terms of how it conducts its business. We set out legislation for risk officers. One such risk officer was Mr. Jonathan Sugarman and we met the Central Bank recently on this. Mr. Sugarman reported breaches of the regulations to the Central Bank and he followed the letter of the law in terms of the legislation. He was the one who found himself being the victim at the end of all of this and is still trying to fight his case. I am taking one individual case but it is one that it is well known publicly and was before some of the European committees and before the Central Bank. It would appear that the complaint was made in terms of the issues raised at that time and it was suggested that the Central Bank did little or nothing about it, but Mr. Sugarman was the one who suffered at the end of the day. Whatever changes are made within the banks, such as the appointment of ethical officers, the legislation has to be strong enough to ensure that that person is protected.

The Minister answered partially the question on the meeting with the vulture funds in the context of whether he met them. We got a list from the Department of the number of times that officials and the Minister's predecessor met the vulture funds. There was quite an extensive list of meetings with an extensive range of vulture funds. What I want to clarify is, while the Minister may have not met them, do they continue to meet with the Minister's officials.