Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

I will focus on my main concern, the banking expertise or the lack of it within the Department, principally during the height of the lending boom when billions of euro were being shovelled out by the banks. As I understand it, there have been improvements in the Department in the past 12 months in regard to the banking side. There has been an increase of 50% in staffing and a number of experts, including a banking analyst, a banking accountant, a legal adviser dealing with financial services matters and a senior economist, have been put into that section.

I have two issues, given the importance of the bank issue for the future of this country. How was the Department left without all of this necessary expertise during a time of a major explosion in bank lending, which seemed to happen on an unregulated basis? Is the Minister satisfied with the additional expertise he has acquired on the banking side in his Department and is the Department fully fit for purpose for the future?

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