Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I thank the Minister for his response. I read something recently about whether a central bank can go bust. It is a question which goes to the heart of the point the Minister just made. Since we left the gold standard, central banks cannot go bust. Quantitative easing is the proof of this. There is a row in the United States currently. They will print $600 billion extra and buy bonds from each other. The role of the Central Bank has changed completely. Tier one is not even decided in the European Union but in Switzerland. Is that not an extraordinary issue?

The reason I raise this issue is that throughout this legislation, the Minister has given himself all manner of fail-safes, rights and so on. However, this section states that we cannot interfere with the European Central Bank. That proves my point. We can walk over Stock Exchange rules, pay short shrift to the Companies Acts, deal with any of the by-laws or rules of any organisation or association and we can walk over the 1989 building societies legislation and the Central Bank legislation, as required by the Minister. I do not disagree with the objectives but I say that to prove a point.

This section states that nothing in this Bill prevents the performance of the Governor of the Central Bank in his or her functions in regard to obligations to Europe. It is on that basis that I asked the question. I recognise it is peripheral to this but it is important people realise we are passing legislation which allows us to ride roughshod over the Constitution.