Mr. John Moran:

I mentioned the composition of the banking unit earlier, which in many ways confuses things a little or at least makes it more difficult to resolve easily. The people in the banking unit, or indeed the rest of the Department, who are civil servants are subject to the normal rules that apply to civil servants in that regard. There have been some changes and I think it has been suggested or may already be the case that I am supposed to spend at least two years not working in any sort of conflict situation after leaving my position. These rules apply to the civil servants in there. I believe John Corrigan spoke at the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform about the review he is conducting regarding the people he has in his area. We have started to think about whether anything specific to that situation is necessary given the nature of our position and, for example, have asked our colleagues in the United Kingdom how they handle these issues. However, while one can focus on the conflict that exists in the banking unit as a particular one that has focus, in some respects the same conflicts apply in almost everything we do as people who look at the economy, in that one could say such a conflict arises if someone leaves our Department to go into work in a professional firm. This is a new issue for the Civil Service to grapple with because we have started to encourage people to come into the Civil Service from outside, as opposed to previously, when that was less frequent. As a consequence and as we go through the situation, we also will see more people leaving. A number of people already have left the Department in recent months, which in many ways is reflecting that.