Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. Does he know he gave the same speech two years ago? We are talking about holding senior executives in banks and financial institutions to account but the Minister has just given the same information that he did two years ago. The problem is his party, Fine Gael, has been part of the Government for the past ten years. The Minister has been part of that Government since 2013, which is a hell of a lot of time in which that party could have enhanced the individual accountability regime or strengthened the Central Bank's toolkit for holding individuals to account. The Central Bank sought this power as far back as December 2017 to mirror British legislation introduced in 2016.

In April 2019, two years ago this month, the Minister committed to having that Bill published and available to the Dáil soon after the summer of that year. Two years later, we still do not have the legislation. What has caused the delay and why has the Minister not been able to deliver on the commitment he gave to the House two years ago in April 2019? Is it just that the Government's priority in holding individual senior bankers and those in financial institutions to account does not meet the required standard?

See this speech in context