Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I understand that. I have beaten the drum for years regarding individual accountability from bankers, which we need. However, individual accountability from bankers where people see that nothing went wrong means nothing. There is no accountability if the Central Bank cannot say something went wrong. If the Central Bank had that individual accountability regime, which makes it clear a person can delegate tasks but cannot delegate responsibly, for which I have been arguing for many years, would it be in a position to hold individuals within the banks accountable in respect of the tracker mortgage scandal?

I acknowledge that the Central Bank did not make this initial recommendation here; it was done by the LRC. However, this was done in Britain two and a half years ago. There was a lead-in period to all of this and I believe the Central Bank is behind the curve. It was slow in arguing for this to happen and, now, we are just following what is in place for a number of years in other jurisdictions.

In Britain, the Financial Conduct Authority, FCA, has said not only does it need individual accountability and the senior management regime to apply to senior management in the banks, it needs to hold the regulators themselves to the highest standard and it has applied the same regime to the Bank of England. Is it proposed there will be individual accountability within the Central Bank in regard to the failures that may present in overseeing financial institutions, consumer protection or prudential regulation?