Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

Senator Bacik spoke about the difficulties involved when a bank influences the work culture of an organisation. This highlighted to me the practical difficulty of nationalising our banking system or chunks of it. The idea that an elected Government would get involved in determining the work culture of an organisation that has been nationalised is just a step too far. We have enough on our plate without having to get into issues. Ironically, that is why these amendments are so important. While we might differ on whether there is a need to nationalise our banking system, I am absolutely clear that much more must be done to sharpen the oversight role of the Oireachtas of the activities and the affairs of our banks. I completely agree with Senator Alex White's point that we can never have too little transparency regarding how our banks are conducting themselves, particularly given the vast investment which the Irish taxpayer has made. My first employer said he wanted our relationship to be based on one principle, which was "no surprises". It will be desperately difficult to do this in such a complicated realm of economic activity, but it seems like a decent objective that we should pursue when dealing with the public as regards the future of Irish banking.

I have three practical suggestions to make to the Minister as to why he should support these amendments or a version of them. First, it appears there would be a political benefit to the Government of the day in involving the Opposition in deciding who will run NAMA. The Minister rightly makes the point about the role a bipartisan consensus could play given the difficulties we are facing. The proposals for an Oireachtas committee on NAMA by Fine Gael and Labour appear to offer an opportunity for some kind of consensus to develop on who could run this kind of organisation.

Second, in all the proposals we have made, it is clear that the Government will still have a majority on the Oireachtas committee. In my short time in the Oireachtas, I have probably argued on 50 amendments like this one and, unsurprisingly, I have been defeated on every one of them. The point has been made that there is confusion between the role of the Oireachtas and that of the Government. None of these amendments, however, seeks to detract from the role of the Government, which will have a majority on all Oireachtas committees. In effect, it will still be able to determine the decisions to be made by each of them.

Third, amendment No. 37 from the Fine Gael group still makes clear that the Minister will be in the driving seat to determine nominees for the sub-committee. If the Oireachtas committee for whatever reason, which appears to me to be intensely unlikely, does reject the Minister's recommendations, the Minister himself will still be able to put forward his own recommendations and, if not circumvent the process, at least dramatically shorten it.