Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

A very important judgment was given in the High Court this week relating to the Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Act 2008. The then Labour Party spokesperson on finance, Deputy Joan Burton, said in a debate on that Act that: "One of the difficulties with giving the Minister a blank cheque is that it can invoke what economists and philosophers like to call the law of unintended consequences." No one debating and voting on the 2008 Act knew the size of the blank cheque or the scale of the unintended consequences. We certainly know them now. This legislation remains on the Statute Book and the extraordinary powers given to the Minister for Finance are still in place. Will the Tánaiste, as deputy leader of the Government, raise in Cabinet the need to review and amend, or better still, repeal this Act?

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