Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Minister is correct to point out that the failings in the financial and taxi sectors were not solely the fault of the regulators. However, they were also not simply due to policies or light touch regulation. There was a deliberate policy of deregulation of the financial sector. That was not only the cavalier attitude of the former Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy. A general policy of deregulation and privatisation was favoured or dominant in a range of sectors. I put it to the Minister that it is not possible to deny he is committing an act of deregulation and privatisation if he is moving from a situation in which he is the regulator and shareholder in the national lottery, alongside a State company as the other shareholder, to one where a body at one remove from direct accountability becomes the regulator and the State is no longer a shareholder. I do not see how he can sustain his argument. The reason he sets out for a new quango is because something that was significantly under his control and subject to a degree of public accountability will now be controlled by some private and almost certainly external commercially driven entity. This has to be controlled and regulated, particularly in a sector in which one has to be careful. Gambling should not be allowed to run riot. If the running riot of certain elements of the financial and banking sector caused serious problems, allowing gambling to run riot would also be potentially dangerous for society. I am worried that the regulation will be at a further remove from political accountability, and for that reason I oppose the section and everything related to it in the Bill.

Even under the current Government, how often do we get answers when we raise questions about the taxi or financial sectors? We are told it is the regulators' job to deal with the issues arising. The terminology used when Departments reject our parliamentary questions is that they are not in their remit.