Mr. Gabriel Makhlouf:

If I recall correctly, that particular gentleman described our work as "annoying". One of the things I can tell Deputy Doherty is he may regret the fact that we may continue to be annoying. The point which I think is important and upon which I want to build is what Mr. Sibley just said, which is certainly under my leadership I am absolutely determined to make sure that the practices and the culture, the behaviours of the past, are not repeated. In the work that the Central Bank has done, which it should be extremely proud of, and the work that we are doing and the work that we will do, we are going to make sure that banks are held to account for their actions. In particular, it is their responsibility - as I said earlier - to restore trust in themselves. Banks are an important part of the financial system. They are an important part of the community. We want the community as a whole to trust them.

At the Central Bank, we are going to make sure that we continue to pursue this agenda, but I will also continue to call on the banks to show that they are taking it seriously and for them to prove to the community as a whole that they are changing. That is why I welcomed the setting up of the culture board, and I look forward to the culture board. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. I like to see that as a statement of intent, that they want to change, and at the end of the day, it will be their actions that will determine the extent to which they are changing. We are going to continue to do our job.

We have proposed, as the committee will know, a senior accountability regime which will be an important part of the infrastructure and the framework that we need. I look forward to the introduction of the legislation and I look forward to cross-party support for that legislation when it comes into place. I can assure Deputy Doherty we are going to take this issue seriously. It is important for the community. Let me make a particular point, because the other day, when I was talking to a stakeholder from outside the bank, he said to me that I have to protect bank profits. I could not let that statement just lie there. My response to him was that my job and our job is not to protect bank profits. Our job is to protect financial stability. Obviously, the profitability of banks is related to financial stability. We are absolutely focused on our mandate. We are not in the business of promoting the financial services industry as may have been the case in the past. That is not our job. Our job is to protect the financial stability of the country, the wider economy, consumers' interests and the interests of citizens in Ireland. That is the job we are going to focus on.