Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will begin with the latter question regarding how we propose to get to a culture that is different to the culture to which the Deputy has referred. It is by the steps this and previous Governments have taken with regard to the regulation of our banks. It is about the changes that are fundamental in nature that have happened in the regulation of the banking sector since those awful years, months and days of the global financial crisis. It is the reason that since 2013, the Central Bank of Ireland has had legislation in place on an enhanced fitness and probity regime. This means those in senior roles in our banking system have to go through a very thorough evaluation process and ultimately require the consent of the Central Bank to fulfil particular roles. It is also the reason we require our banking system to hold a very high level of capital to prevent the destructive, harmful, difficult and traumatic consequences of a decade and a half ago and what banking difficulty can do to the rest of our economy.

We now have a banking sector with a fundamentally different regulatory environment to what we had in the years that led to the financial crisis and banking crisis that afflicted our country. This is not to say for a moment there are still not risks and difficulties, because there are. This is one of the reasons I will bring forward legislation on the senior accountability regime on Report Stage. I hope it will be before Dáil Éireann prior to the Christmas recess. It will put in place a further element regarding how individual accountability in our financial sector can be deepened and enhanced to act as a preventative arm for the very risks the Deputy is speaking about developing and, if they do occur, to make sure we have the ability to sanction individuals in addition to the laws that are already in place to do it.

With regard to the Deputy's comments on the banks themselves and the decision I made, she knows that every cent the State had to put in to support and save Bank of Ireland at that point in time has all been got back along with €2 billion more. The decision we made and that I recommended to the Government on the bank cap only applies to a bank in which the State no longer has a share. Of course I appreciate the sensitivity of this decision, given the public hurt and public emotion that has been caused by all of the issues to which the Deputy has referred. We have only three retail banks left in our country. More than 30 banks are present in the economy. None of them are being subject to the pay cap restraints I made the decision to change, while the banks that employ the most Irish people and hold almost €200 million in deposits of Irish people, are subject to them. There are consequences to this and the Government has made a moderate change recognising the risks and difficulties that are there.

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