Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No 7:

In page 14, after line 36, to insert the following:

“Amendment of Freedom of Information Act 2014

20. The Freedom of Information Act 2014 is amended—(a) in section 2(1), by the insertion of the following definition:

“ ‘HBFI group entity’ has the same meaning as it has in the Home Building Finance Ireland Act 2018;”, and

(b) in Part 1 of Schedule 1—

(i)in paragraph (ai), by the substitution of “functions;” for “functions,”, and

(ii) by the insertion of the following paragraphs after paragraph (aj):

“(ak) the National Treasury Management Agency in the performance of the functions conferred on it under theHome Building Finance Ireland Act 2018insofar as it relates to records concerning the following:

(i) providers or potential providers of finance (including loans) to Home Building Finance Ireland or any HBFI group entity;

(ii) companies, firms, funds or any other entities to which Home Building Finance Ireland or any HBFI group entity has provided finance (including loans) or could potentially provide finance (including loans);

(iii) market counterparties or potential market counterparties of Home Building Finance Ireland or any HBFI group entity;

(iv) purchasers or potential purchasers of —

(I) a loan,

(II) an asset, or

(III) an asset securing a loan, held or managed by Home Building Finance Ireland or any HBFI group entity;

(al) Home Building Finance Ireland in the performance of the functions conferred on it under the Home Building Finance Ireland Act 2018insofar as it relates to records concerning the following:

(i) providers or potential providers of finance (including loans) to Home Building Finance Ireland or any HBFI group entity;

(ii) companies, firms, funds or any other entities to which Home Building Finance Ireland or any HBFI group entity has provided finance (including loans) or could potentially provide finance (including loans);

(iii) market counterparties or potential market counterparties of Home Building Finance Ireland or any HBFI group entity;

(iv) purchasers or potential purchasers of —

(I) a loan,

(II) an asset, or

(III) an asset securing a loan, held or managed by Home Building Finance Ireland or any HBFI group entity;

(am) a HBFI group entity in the performance of the functions conferred on it under the Home Building Finance Ireland Act 2018insofar as it relates to records concerning the following:

(i) providers or potential providers of finance (including loans) to Home Building Finance Ireland or any HBFI group entity;

(ii) companies, firms, funds or any other entities to which Home Building Finance Ireland or any HBFI group entity has provided finance (including loans) or could potentially provide finance (including loans);

(iii) market counterparties or potential market counterparties of Home Building Finance Ireland or any HBFI group entity;

(iv) purchasers or potential purchasers of —

(I) a loan,

(II) an asset, or

(III) an asset securing a loan, held or managed by Home Building Finance Ireland or any HBFI group entity.”.”.

The objective of HBFI is to provide credit to builders and developers with commercially viable residential sites. For HBFI to lend successfully to those entities, it needs to be in a position to guarantee absolute confidentiality to potential applicants and market counterparties. While the Freedom of Information Act contains protections for third party information, it does not afford the degree of confidentiality expected in the market. Without the necessary level of confidentiality to the records of HBFI, the danger is it may be made ineffective by severely limiting the appetite of builders and developers to seek finance from HBFI.

The potential for information to be released in relation to borrowers which would not be made available were they to obtain loans from private institutions would potentially create an uneven market environment for HBFI. This amendment provides limited exclusions to address these concerns, bringing HBFI in line with the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, SBCI, and other commercial state agencies.

In order to ensure transparency, the Freedom of Information Act will continue to apply as normal to HBFI in relation to such documents as strategy and policy papers, board and management meeting minutes, papers and agendas, internal correspondence, correspondence with Departments and administrative records such as contracts, expenses, etc.

In addition, it is necessary to extend this partial exemption to the National Treasury Management Agency. The NTMA is conferred with certain functions under section 9 of the Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018. This may result in the NTMA holding records in relation to the operations of HBFI. For the same reasons that I have just described, these records need to be protected when they are held by the NTMA in the performance of its functions under the HBFI Bill. The exemption for the NTMA in this regard is therefore a mirror image of the exemption for HBFI.