Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I wish to make it clear to the Deputy that in every respect in which that can be achieved, we will ask the board to act. That is what the present management and board is committed to doing.

The Deputy made a comment last week, 15 April, warning against over-regulation, as it was his latest worry. The headline stated, "Kenny cautions against property 'over-regulation'." There have been systemic failures in the independent regulatory system we have had and we are conducting a banking inquiry related to that. Those reports will be available to the House and there will be a debate on them. There will be a commission of investigation deriving from that and the terms of reference will come from that process. That is how we can properly assess all these issues and see what lessons must be learned for the future.

In the meantime there have been significant changes to the banking system, including at the top of all the Irish financial institutions. Five of the six CEOs in the Irish financial institutions have left, as have five of the six chairpersons. A process of board rotation is under way in the institutions and there is an entirely new senior management team in Anglo Irish Bank and in the Irish Nationwide Building Society. There have been outside appointments to key senior positions in other financial institutions, such as group finance director and chief group risk officer in AIB. There are public interest directors on the boards of all the banks. There also has been a change in remuneration, with bonuses abolished and salaries capped. These changes have meant the chief executive of Bank of Ireland and the managing director of AIB are on their current salaries, which are smaller than what they were on before. That is proper.

Everything that can be done with the matters raised by the Deputy will be pursued by the management and board of that institution, which is under new management.

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