Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Fine. I understand that. Obviously something happened to him after he went to the Department of Finance. I will explain. This will be news to the Minister of State as I uncovered it only this morning.

On 28 September 2012 the Minister signed his name, "Michael Noonan", as a personal signature to statutory instrument No. 381, which was laid before the Dáil at that time. The opening paragraph states: "I, Michael Noonan, having consulted with the Central Bank of Ireland and the credit union advisory committee, hereby make the following regulation". There follows two and a half pages that deal with the levies to be paid to the compensation fund in question. In the schedule attached there are nine references to the banks and building societies, with the credit unions dealt with separately in the last paragraph. According to the schedule, the banks and building societies are to make a contribution of €1,515 per €1 billion of their loans. There is a breakdown of three elements, including pillar 1 capital requirements and pillar 1 capital requirements relating to the authorised credit institution concerned. The officials will know to what I refer. On nine occasions the document states that the three elements of the levy will apply to those institutions for every €1 billion of their loanbook. The last paragraph refers to credit unions which are to be levied at €51,000 per €1 million.

The Minister of State might find that interesting. However, yesterday I picked up a new statutory instrument, No. 443 of 2012, laid by the Minister yesterday, and to be published in Iris Oifigiúil by the end of this week. This states: "I, the Minister for Finance, having consulted with Central Bank of Ireland and the credit union advisory committee, hereby make the following regulation". The Minister has changed the references made in the three columns he signed more than a month ago, beginning thus: "I substitute €1 million for €1 billion in paragraph (a)". In paragraph (b) in column 3 he substitutes €1 million for €1 billion, and similarly in paragraph (c) in column 3. His first statutory instrument was 1,000% off the mark. He confused €1 billion for €1 million.

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