Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

It is important to note the purpose of the Central Bank Reform Bill, which is part of a suite of three Bills, the second of which will be before the House in the autumn term with a further one later. This is step one. On Deputy Burton's amendment, it is important to note that the covered institutions already pay 100% in any event. Deputy McCormack made an important point on credit unions, which may not be germane to this amendment. In fairness to Deputy Burton, she has tabled a later amendment, which raises that issue very specifically and we will deal with it when we reach that amendment. However, in answer to Deputy McCormack's question, the Minister to my knowledge has met representatives of the credit unions at least twice at this stage and has had discussions with them on various aspects. I have had discussions with them, as I am sure others have had. Some Members present had the discussion on Committee Stage over a very long period.

Section 33J provides the Central Bank with powers to impose levies in much the same way as is provided for in Deputy Burton's amendment, except that were her amendment to be enshrined in legislation at this stage, it would remove all of the flexibilities which might be represented as having a negative impact in the way some Deputies, apparently sincerely, fear they would, but would also have the downside of removing the advantage of some of those flexibilities and the regulator's activities undertaken by the bank regarding the EU and so forth, which obviously need to be accounted for and done. That is something that needs to be borne in mind. There could be difficulties in the event that the Central Bank was dependent on streams of income that did not come into play and were provided for specifically in legislation and flexibilities were not available in that regard. Other sources of funding that might currently or in the future be available would appear to be precluded in the event that this amendment were accepted. There are many considerations.

In the context of what the Minister for Finance is undertaking in this suite of legislation, his intention is to move towards a situation where all the institutions, including all the covered institutions and the others, get to the position of 100% payment, which is desirable for many reasons, including perhaps to send the correct signal which was rightly pointed out by a number of Deputies. Dealing with the current reality, and bearing in mind that this is part of a suite of legislation, it is not desirable or advantageous for anybody at this point to accept this amendment.

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