Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The management company issue was finalised in the Seanad yesterday and can come back to the House in due course. The Deputy may speak to the Whips about when that can be achieved, as it is an important issue for the House to consider.

On the banking inquiry, the Minister for Finance will bring the reports that come to hand this week to Government next week for its consideration. Following that the Minister proposes to lay both reports before the Houses of the Oireachtas and they can be circulated to all Deputies and Senators.

The Minister for Finance also proposes to invite the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service to consider the reports and I understand the committee intends to invite the authors of both reports to appear before it. It should be emphasised that these are preliminary scoping reports intended to point the way to more detailed examination by a commission of investigation. The Minister for Finance will prepare terms of reference and a draft Government order to establish a statutory commission of investigation and the draft order will be put to both Houses of the Oireachtas for a vote in due course. The Minister previously indicated that the Government envisages that the commission of investigation will be established by the end of June 2010.

As the Deputy mentioned, the legislation on subcontractors was debated in the Seanad and the Minister indicated at the time that he would incorporate some of the points made, come forward with legislation and work to get a full and comprehensive response to the question. We are working on the matter.

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