Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I am satisfied that my Department has augmented the expertise available to it in this area, first, through my decision made earlier this year to delegate certain functions to the NTMA, which has a recognised expertise in money matters and has also developed an expertise in regard to banking matters, and, second, through additional recruitment within my Department, to which Deputy O'Keeffe very fairly referred. The Department has recruited the services of four experts from the financial services area through a combination of direct employment and secondment from both the private and public sector. In 2009, the Government approved the appointment of a banking analyst with extensive knowledge and experience in the banking field on a three-year employment contract. In addition, the Department has recently secured the services of a banking accountant for a period of 12 months through an agreed secondment arrangement, with no cost to my Department. The Department has engaged an expert in business and legal studies and a master's accountant. The Department has also engaged on secondment from the Office of the Attorney General a senior legal adviser to the Department solely on financial services matters. All of those matters have been attended to in terms of the current arrangements and I look forward to the report of the independent review group to see whether any further strengthening is required.

In regard to the historical position, again, I am not in a position to answer that question today. The Deputy will appreciate these matters are under investigation and have already been examined in Watson and Regling report.

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