Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

On the same issue, I have a query in regard to the proposal by the Minister for Finance to bring an order before the House regarding the transfer of powers to the NTMA. The legal advice available to the Labour Party indicates there is no power on the part of the Minister to delegate to the NTMA. The latter is effectively a secret organisation that is not open to any public scrutiny and is exempt from freedom of information legislation in the same way that the Central Bank staff who provided their spouses with hundreds of trips abroad are exempt from those provisions. What is the position regarding this extraordinary delegation of functions in respect of banking policy and a substantial area of economic policy via an order to the NTMA?

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