Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. We are finally scrutinising legislation that we have been calling on the Government and its predecessor to bring forward for years. In July 2018, the Central Bank asked for individual accountability for those in the financial sector and here we are at the end of 2021 with the heads of Bill. It is not even the full legislation, and the Minister tells us that will not be operational until January 2023. Those dates sum up the lack of urgency in the Government's response to the matter. Why has it taken so long for it to act on this matter? Why has it not been a priority for the Government? I am sure the Minister will tell us it has been a priority but the dates do not lie. It is not as if this has happened in a vacuum as the biggest ever swindle by a bank was uncovered in the past number of years. Hundreds of millions of euro have been wrongfully taken from people's accounts in the tracker mortgage scandal. It is more than the euro. There are the houses and homes that were lost. Young people were robbed of their opportunity to have a normal family life because people were put under serious financial restrictions. In all that time, there has been a delay in bringing forward this legislation.

Today is a big day because for the first time an individual - a senior executive in Permanent TSB - is under investigation with regard to the tracker mortgage scandal. That is to be welcomed. Nevertheless we need the proper legislation that the Central Bank has been seeking. Why has this taken so long and why has it not been a priority for the Government? If it has been a priority, why will it take from July 2018, when the Central Bank called for this, up to its proposed commencement in January 2023? In reality, it is a mirror image of legislation that has been operational in Britain for many years.