Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

I am sorry if I appeared to anticipate my opportunity to speak. On the matter I raised last week, that is, the legislation on new regulatory arrangements and the governance of the Central Bank, it is simply not acceptable or satisfactory that no date for the legislation has been specified. The excuse used last week was that the Department of Finance has been very busy. We all know it has been very busy recently. If it had been busy last year or the preceding year, it would have been much better for the economy. Will the Taoiseach be able to state next week the year in which the legislation will be published? We are about to start a debate on the economy and most of the commentary will refer to failures of financial regulation and failures with respect to governance by the Central Bank and the Department of Finance. It is absolutely unacceptable that we should be discussing this-----

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