Peter Kelly (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

The Central Bank Reform Bill is the latest in a series of measures introduced by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, to stabilise our public finances and to fix our banking sector. The failure of regulation in this country has greatly contributed to our economic downfall. Regulation under the soon to be disbanded Financial Regulator was a disaster. When Patrick Neary appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Economic and Regulatory Affairs in October 2008, I asked him whether he saw the financial crisis coming. While it was known at the time that things were not good, looking back it now is clear that banks then continued to run rings around the Financial Regulator. Unfortunately, the people will now have to pay the price for this failure.

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