Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Progress in bringing this Bill forward has been slow. The updated version was published on 28 July 2022, a year and a day after the publication of the general scheme of the Bill. It comes four years after the publication of the Central Bank's report on the behaviour and culture of the Irish retail banks, which first set out the general outline of the new individual accountability framework.

While the details of the proposed framework have been refined since the publication of the report, its four main elements remain the same. They are conduct standards; fitness and probity reform; reform to simplify regulatory enforcement against individuals; and the senior executive accountability regime. The Bill aims to enhance individual accountability in the financial services industry. It grants the power to make regulations to the Central Bank to effectively implement the individual accountability framework in respect of senior executives in regulated financial service providers.

As the Minister knows, and as others have mentioned, Britain and Australia have introduced similar legislation in the past six years. It is to be hoped the introduction of such legislation here will give rise to improvements in internal governance and help to concentrate the minds of senior individuals on the standards of conduct expected of them.

In January 2017, Sinn Féin brought forward a motion in the Dáil calling for legislation that would ensure individual in financial institutions could be held to account. In July 2018, the Central Bank called for similar reforms to enhance its ability to promote what it described as a culture of ethical compliance by firms and individuals. It is regrettable that the legislation is being introduced four years after these reforms were called for. It is a long overdue Bill. As a result of the tracker mortgage scandal, thousands of families lost income and 327 people lost their homes. While banks have been fined a combined total of €278 million, not a single individual has ever been held to account. The Bill must ensure that this never happens again.

I welcome the senior executive accountability regime in the Bill which will make individual directors and managers of banks and financial services companies personally liable for regulatory breaches by their firms. We all saw the rogue behaviour that led to the near collapse of our banking system and the biggest transfer of State wealth to private hands in the history of the State. The Government, and previous Governments, know well how to transfer public money to private hands. We see this with direct provision, housing assistance payments and private bus operators. It is all around us. Little has been learned from the €64 billion bank bailout. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. The same happened during the pandemic. We need change, greater redistribution of wealth and a republic where workers get a greater share of the profits they generate.

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