Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I would appreciate if the Leader would provide for a debate not just on the point raised by Senator Fitzgerald about regulation and regulators but about regulation in general and how it works. What always seems to happen is that we run into one issue after another and the burden of difficulty always lies with the regulator. There is a classic example in this regard. I heard the Chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Economic Regulatory Affairs on the radio last week telling the world that when the Financial Regulator was contacted by the Government about 110% mortgages, his answer was that the market would sort that out. I knew when he was saying it that that was incorrect and that it was not possible. I double-checked it afterwards to confirm that the regulator did not have any authority to rule out 110% mortgages. I recollect, as I speak, that the Deputy Leader made a similar reference when speaking somewhere about two or three months ago and I should have corrected it at that stage. It is still incorrect no matter who says it. He did not have the authority to rule out any product.

Something similar is happening today. This afternoon on the plinth the ESB will announce a reduction in the cost of energy. Why is this happening? Politicians have rightly and understandably criticised the Commission for Energy Regulation for not allowing the ESB to reduce the price of electricity. My colleague, Senator Norris, and others have raised this. It is incomprehensible. It brings regulation into disrepute. However, the reason is simple. Ten years ago many on these benches pointed out that the efforts by Government to control electricity prices was simply a device to increase the cost of electricity to make it more profitable and therefore more attractive to the private sector. This has succeeded beyond the Government's wildest expectations, at a cost to Irish taxpayers——