Shane Ross (Independent)

In view of the fact that the issue of the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland and junkets has arisen, I wish to make a statement. I have a vested interest in that I was the author of the story that appeared in the Sunday Independent. I should say that before saying anything else. The Central Bank of Ireland, perhaps above all institutions of the State, should be accountable for what it does with public money because it, above all institutions of the State, lectures us about what to do with public money. It lectures the Government and the people on a consistent — at least quarterly — basis. It makes a great virtue year after year of fiscal rectitude. That is its flag-waving slogan. For some reason which is difficult to understand, as Deputy Bruton said this morning on "Morning Ireland", the Central Bank of Ireland is particularly well protected because it is not subject to freedom of information — I do not know why that is the case. The information about its waste of public money on spouses over two years would not have emerged had it not been for an accident, in effect. It was outed because another organ of the State made a report and it issued some information which came up because it felt it had to in that situation. Had that not happened we would not have known what was happening in the Central Bank of Ireland.

This issue teaches us that there is a fortress on Dame Street which keeps secrets to itself and which is a model of hypocrisy in that it tells us how to behave and behaves in a totally different way itself. It is absolutely imperative that organisations of that sort are accountable and when they behave in a way that is hypocritical that they are exposed. That is important for the credibility of the Central Bank of Ireland. It is damaged——