Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I accept the point the Deputy has raised. An application to get the information could lead on to ensuring that the person concerned had a much broader understanding of the provisions of the Bill. That is entirely correct, and we need to build that into the campaign. On Deputy Doherty's question, it is expected that this Bill, with the agreement of the other House, will be passed by the end of this calendar year. This has gone on for a very long time and Deputy Doherty, more than most, is aware of the priority that our friends in the troika attached to this legislation. It is really important that we get this through by the end of the year. My understanding is that once the legislation is in place the Central Bank will have to tender and outsource the work, and that will take some time. I do not have definitive timeframes but I will ask the Minister for Finance to revert to the Deputy on that. I suspect it will be at least a year, if not longer, before we see this in operation. The Central Bank will have to get its operations together. It will be the subject of a competitive tender process, as the work is to be outsourced to some external delivery agent. That all takes time. I will ask the Minister to give Deputy Doherty a more definitive timeframe if possible.

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