Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I would not wish to accuse Senator Phelan of superfluity and redundancy, but I am not disposed to accepting the amendment. He has suggested that a review of the operation of the Bill take place and that the results of this should be presented to the Oireachtas within a two-year period after the commencement of the legislation. The Minister for Finance indicated at an earlier stage that any review of this type should be delayed until we see how the legislation has operated over a number of years. With regard to the spirit of the amendment, I must point out that both the Central Bank and the regulatory authority will be obliged under this legislation to prepare an annual report which, under the legislation, must be laid before each House of the Oireachtas. In addition, the regulatory authority will be obliged to devise its annual strategic plan, which must be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas and, subsequently, published by the authority.

It is also important to note that under section 33AM of the principal Act it is provided that certain officers of the bank can be required to attend before an appropriate Oireachtas committee. This element of accountability to the Oireachtas is built into the legislation. It will allow the Oireachtas ample opportunity to assess the operations and activities of the Central Bank and the regulatory authority. The Director of Consumer Affairs and the Registrar of Credit Unions are also required to produce strategic plans and annual reports for submission to the regulatory authority. Under those circumstances, I believe there is an effective review and assessment process involving the Houses of the Oireachtas which is facilitated by the proposed provisions of this Bill. For those reasons, I am not disposed to accept this amendment.

I do not want to anticipate the Senator, but he mentioned consumer protection and I see he has a number of amendments down which deal with this. I would prefer to address that issue at this stage. The Minister was careful to ensure that the concerns of the Irish League of Credit Unions were taken into account in devising this legislation. A meeting took place between the Minister and a delegation from the board of the ILCU and this was followed up by a number of meetings between the league representatives and officers of the Department of Finance. The ILCU accepts that the Bill, as it now stands, recognises the distinct voluntary character and social and economic role of credit unions and is content with that. While I understand the vigilance of the Senator in respect of the credit union movement, which, as we heard on Second Stage, is shared by all Members, the fact remains that the league and its objections have been accommodated in the Bill as it stands.

The matter of competition issues falls outside this legislation. In fact, the Competition Authority is at present conducting an investigation into bank charges.