Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The basic purpose of a deposit guarantee scheme is to prevent a run on a bank. The most pertinent example in Ireland's case was that of the British Government stepping in to protect Northern Rock. Based on the provisions of the Bill, responsibility for preventing a run on a bank now resides with the Central Bank of Ireland, which is given the role of advising the Minister for Finance. What does that mean for the regulator? Does it mean that we will now have a structure where the Central Bank of Ireland retains, if one likes, control of the prudential aspect of regulating banks and preventing runs on banks? Is this recognition by the Minister that the regulatory system, which we had been assured was fine, failed utterly? I certainly believe it failed dramatically and it is costing our taxpayers a vast amount of money.

The Minister spoke about greater Oireachtas oversight. In the United States, the legislative arrangements for future regulation are being published at present. Public disclosure and transmission of information, including to markets, is at the heart of those proposals. However, this short Bill makes no provision for public disclosure. The Minister talked about more Oireachtas oversight and then suggested that oversight should be in private.

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