Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 6:

In page 10, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following:

4.—The Governor of the Central Bank and the Head of Financial Regulation shall present to the Houses of the Oireachtas an appraisal of the Recommendations of the Statutory Commission of Investigation on the Banking system within 3 months of such Commission completing its work.".

The Government is in the process of commissioning an investigation into the banking system. The amendment proposes that the Governor of the Central Bank and head of financial regulation present to the Houses of the Oireachtas the commission's report within three months of it completing its work. The Fine Gael Party tabled a reasoned amendment on Committee Stage as we opposed the legislation in a number of areas. One of my party's problems with the Bill was that a proper investigation was not being carried out into the root causes of the banking failure to make key people accountable for errors made.

We need to know the appropriate response to dealing with the banking crisis we had. We had two excellent reports, the Regling and Watson report, and the Honohan report, which are leading on to a commission of inquiry. We feel this legislation should have been done on foot of the commission of investigation into banking being concluded. There should be an appraisal of that investigation by the Governor of the Central Bank and the head of financial regulation. Furthermore the ECB issued an opinion on the heads of this legislation on 7 April, calling for the independence of the governor and the commission to be sacrosanct in terms of the Bill. That was subsequently followed up by a further ECB opinion dated 17 June, stating that these issues, the independence of the Governor of the Central Bank and the commission regarding European System of Central Banks-related tasks had not been catered for in the legislation.

This legislation is being rushed through. It is poor legislation. We asked for additional time. This amendment would allow for a proper commission of inquiry following the great work done by Professor Honohan, Mr. Regling and Mr. Watson. We would then be able to introduce legislation taking into account the ECB opinion of 17 June and the commission of investigation into the banking sector. That legislation would then address the issues and have relevance.

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