David Norris (Independent)

I am referring to page ten of the Minister of State's script, in which he deals with section 1. He spoke about the definitions of public service bodies as "the Civil Service, the Garda Síochána, the Permanent Defence Force, local authorities, the Health Service Executive, the Central Bank". In this regard I draw the Minister of State's attention to a case from the Supreme Court, the Central Bank of Ireland v. Martin Leo Gildea from 14 March 1997. In the judgment, the Supreme Court found as follows concerning the status of the defendant:

He is not a member of the staff of any of the organs of State created by the Constitution and accorded a role in the constitutional order separate and distinct from the three organs of Government, Legislative, Executive and Judicial, such as the Attorney General. He is not a civil servant in any of the Departments responsible to the individual Ministers who constitute the Government and hence is not a "civil servant of the Government" and thus a person "employed [...] under the State." He is employed by a body which has been created by statute, the powers of which, however essential they may be to the functioning of the State, can be removed from them at any stage by the Oireachtas. He is thus in no different position from those employed in a vast range of what have come to be called "semi-State bodies", the employees of which may, by specific legislative provision, be deemed to be civil servants but who, in the absence of any such provision, are not to be so regarded.

It seems from this that the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland should not be mentioned in the body but put in the Schedule, where one finds all the other semi-State bodies to which the court refers. It seems this mis-classification is a result of a desire to fine the employees of the Central Bank. I have put down an amendment to remedy this difficulty. I look forward to hearing what the Minister of State has to say about this and many other matters.

The Minister of State should address a real financial issue, the fact that rents in central Dublin are skyrocketing under the reviews. We have an absurd position in that rents can only be reviewed upwards. People like Pia Bang are going bust and getting out. The city is full of shuttered shops and we must consider the issue.