Results 521-540 of 16,537 for speaker:Brian Lenihan Jnr

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Second Stage. (16 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: This Bill is complementary to the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Act 2003 which, as Senators will be aware, was signed into law last year. That Act established the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority to oversee the activities of financial institutions, including their treatment of customers. This Bill provides for the establishment of a financial services...

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: The amendment relates to an issue that was debated in the course of the passage of last year's Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Act. It is important to note that the board of the financial regulator is a public interest board. We are talking about the board of a regulator, not a board where one brings in representatives from different sectors. The board's...

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: The effect of the amendment would be to set the maximum fine that the regulator can impose as either €5,000,000 or a sum equal to the amount involved in the financial impropriety. That is the substance of the proposal. The fine is a punitive fine, not a restitutionary fine. The fine prescribed in legislation is what the Oireachtas marks as the just punishment for a particular wrongdoing. In...

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: I accept that Senator Cummins raises a very interesting and difficult question. However, it is not as simple or straightforward as the Senator understandably outlined. The amendment seeks to require the regulatory authority to publicly justify a decision not to investigate or to discontinue an investigation of an alleged contravention. It addresses a concern expressed also during the debate...

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: It is not there at present but the purpose of this legislation is to produce it. That fits in with the Government's general policy in recent years which is to raise the standard of corporate behaviour in business generally, particularly in the case of financial institutions who are entrusted with other people's money. The progress report published last week by the authority confirms that is...

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: The Senator will be glad to learn I may be able to help him on this amendment. The amendment does not take into account paragraph 57BB(d), for which I forgive him because the legislation is sequenced in a very difficult manner. The paragraph was inserted on Report Stage in the Dáil and is based on a similar amendment tabled by Deputy Richard Bruton. The new paragraph states that one of the...

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: The idea of an ombudsman council arose from the public consultation process on the Bill. The existing voluntary ombudsman schemes both have such councils and there has been no objection to the principle of such a council. The council will play an important role in setting out detailed regulations governing the ombudsman scheme and appointing the ombudsman. The Minister's intention is that...

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: As Senators are aware, it is Government policy to seek to have a minimum of 40% of State boards made up of members of each gender. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to achieve this objective given the pool of persons available to serve on particular boards, which varies between sectors. While I accept that criticism can be levelled at the Government in that in some sectors in which...

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: No. A precedent would be established by so providing in this legislation.

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: The suggestion that members of the financial services ombudsman council and the panels should be selected by a process of open recruitment is not in accordance with general practice, which is that a Minister makes such appointments following appropriate consultation. There is no reason to depart from the general practice for these appointments, particularly given the requirements in the...

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: Amendment No. 10 relates to section 16(3)(a), which the Minister introduced in the Dáil to address concerns in this area. The subsection addresses the points raised in Senator John Paul Phelan's amendments, without trespassing on the jurisdiction of the courts. The new subsection provides that where a financial institution acts in bad faith by commencing legal proceedings to frustrate the...

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: It is essential that members of the consumer panel should have a broad knowledge of consumer issues relating to financial services. Section 57CX(3) was amended in the Dáil by the Minister and it makes clear that the key criteria for appointment are knowledge or experience as consumers of financial services. The Minister does not think it would be wise to narrow down the criteria any further....

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: The draftsman has clearly been inspired by the senatorial provisions into importing this amendment into the legislation. The criteria set out by the Minister are knowledge or experience as consumers of financial services. If I am right the qualification for a Seanad panel, set out in the Constitution, is not just knowledge and mere experience but knowledge and practical experience.

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: University Senators are not obliged to have this requirement and do not have to be graduates of the college concerned. However, I am wandering. The Minister is required by section 57CX(2) to consult both the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and organisations representing consumers before appointing members of the panel. I have no doubt that consumer organisations will support the...

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: I may be able to assist the Senator on this issue. The text which the amendment seeks to delete was amended on Report Stage in the Dáil in response to an identical amendment tabled by Deputy Bruton. The current text has the same meaning as the replacement text proposed by the amendment. Although it does not have the same form it has the same meaning.

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: This amendment is based on a misunderstanding. The regulatory authority is structured as a constituent part of the bank and the consumer director is a member of the regulatory authority. Section 33C of the principal Act makes it clear that it is the regulatory authority which has the function of ensuring compliance by finance institutions with their obligations under financial services...

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: Section 27B implements a recommendation of the review group on auditing, namely that the external auditors of a financial institution should provide an annual positive statement to the Central Bank on whether anything has come to their attention which gives rise to a legislative duty to report to the Central Bank. Subsection (2)(a) provides that within three months of the end of the financial...

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: Section 27B implements a recommendation of the review group on auditing that the external auditors of a financial institution should provide an annual positive statement to the Central Bank on whether anything has come to their attention which gives rise to a legislative duty to report it to the Central Bank. That is the same as the commentary on the last amendment. Subsection (4) lists the...

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: Section 27F implements a recommendation of the review group on auditing that audit papers should be available on request to the Central Bank, which is provided for. Under the provisions of section 27, the bank may require an auditor or an affiliate of the auditor to provide it with a copy of any record relating to work carried out for the service provider that is in the possession of the...

Seanad: Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003: Committee Stage (22 Jun 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: These amendments will substitute the new procedure for appeals to go in the first instance to the appeals tribunal with the old system involving direct applications to the court. The amendments may have been put forward in view of an omission in the Bill, as published, which meant that the right of appeal in regard to the revocation of an intermediaries' authorisation was inadvertently...