John Minihan (Progressive Democrats)

I welcome the Minister of State and his officials. I am pleased to see the Bill before the House and I welcome the principle of establishing a single regulatory authority for the financial services sector. I compliment the McDowell group, the work of which formed the basis on which this legislation has been brought forward.

I wish to take up Senator Quinn's point that there is an urgent need to consolidate the Central Banks Acts along the lines of the excellent work carried out in the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. The points made by Senator Quinn are valid and should be taken on board. There are currently six Central Bank Acts in operation and the Bill before the House will constitute a seventh. A further Bill will come before the House by the end of the year which will operate alongside the eight statutory instruments which have been put in place to implement EU directives concerning credit institutions. In addition, the Central Bank and the ISFRA will be responsible for the implementation and oversight of a further 25 Acts that deal with financial institutions and 27 statutory instruments that implement EU legislation.

As Senator Quinn stated, there is a huge amount of regulation governing financial institutions and I am of the opinion that matters will become quite difficult if we do not set about consolidating them into one item of legislation. That matter should be given serious consideration.

Under section 5A(1)(b) of the Bill, the Central Bank will be tasked with promoting the development within the State of the financial services industry. The IFSRA will be given the function of promoting the best interests of users of financial services. Rather than create a scenario in which these functions might clash, it might be appropriate to provide that the Central Bank and the IFSRA address both.