Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Michael McGrath for introducing the Bill again. When this idea was first floated three to four years ago, Irish banks were simply not in a position to reduce rates, whether instructed to do so or otherwise. Ultimately, the Irish banks were holding billions of euro of Irish taxpayers' money in their portfolios and unless they made a profit, they would have been unable to repay that. It is essential that we recognise that it is not four years ago any more and that our economy has changed drastically. We are now at a point where the only bank which remains largely in State ownership can, I hope, be deleveraged back into the private market over the next year or two. That is something I am happy to see. We have already seen another financial institution formerly in the 100% shareholding of the State not only return the money we invested in it but actually return a mild profit to the taxpayer. If all of the independent financial analysts are to be believed, it will be the case in the short term that the Irish taxpayer will start to see more tranches of its investment refunded.

I started out by thanking Deputy Michael McGrath for the Bill and that was sincere. It is not four or five years ago and we are in a different position. Having served as a member of the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality for the past five years, I note that we engaged in an unprecedented number of consultations with expert groups from a variety of fields under the chairmanship of Deputy David Stanton on a range of Bills which have been enacted and quite a number of others which are available for the new Dáil and Government to take up. If those Bills are taken up, they will be passed because of the work done by the committee in question which included members of the party opposite, including Deputy Niall Collins.

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The reports that emanated from that committee, which engaged heavily in pre-legislative scrutiny, informed the relevant Department, be it the Department of Justice and Equality or Defence, on the nature of the changes required to the heads or drafts of Bills that were laid before it.

I accept that Fianna Fáil has made its decision and will run with it. That is Fianna Fáil's prerogative. However, and taking the politics out of it, pre-legislative scrutiny is an essential component of making good legislation. With the greatest will in the world, Deputy Michael McGrath would not have had access to the Department of Finance and its expertise. Nor would he have had access to the legal advice available to the prior Government and the Department responsible for the Bill. Therefore, I encourage Fianna Fáil to take the opportunity to run with the Bill and lay it before the relevant committee in order to ensure that the relevant stakeholders - I do not just mean the banks, but everyone - appear at the committee and give evidence so the legislation might be improved.

Questions have been raised about the Bill's constitutionality. I am not an expert in constitutional law. However, I am aware of the constitutional issues with impeding property rights and I am privy to the retrospective application of legislation on those rights. That the Bill does not contain an appeal mechanism would raise issues in respect of property rights. There is a question in law to be asked of this legislation.

I wish to raise an issue that has been mentioned often in the course of this debate.

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