Rónán Mullen (Independent)

As I said this morning, there is a great deal of anger among the public about the bonuses paid. Undoubtedly, they were not deserved. From now on, there will be a major tax on such bonuses, which is most welcome.

Senator Norris expressed concern about bonuses being acceptable in certain situations, if I understood him correctly, but the recommendation is not about that; rather it is about accessing information on something that took place in the past. It is about eaten bread, that is, money paid out in the period between 30 September 2008 and the passing of this Bill.

I said this morning that I had concerns about the retrospective nature of the recommendation and that while it contained something useful, it might be in the wrong place. I am still convinced that is the case and that there is something not quite right about it. The recommendation is investigative. It is the type of investigation I support, but it is an issue I would prefer to have teased out at an Oireachtas committee. I am open to correction, but I do not believe it is the role of legislation merely to facilitate the outing of certain information, however desirable it might be, on an event that took place in the past or a loophole which we have now moved to close in legislation.

I am not convinced of the merits of the recommendation. I am not convinced about what it would do beyond information gathering. The Green Party supports it and I certainly would like to call the Government's bluff and see a recommendation go from this House to the Dáil. However, it would be demeaning to the Seanad if we were to do that with a recommendation that was not worthy of consideration in the Lower House. I do not believe the recommendation meets that test. Although I deplore the payment of bonuses inappropriately and would support an examination of information being made available on the payment of such bonuses in the past in an appropriate forum, this is not the moment or the place in which to facilitate that investigation. In fact, I do not believe it is the role of this legislation to seek to achieve that now.