John Gilroy (Labour)

This follows on from comments made by the IDA chairman. When the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, was on the Pat Kenny radio show this morning, he made some excellent points about how certain agencies, such as the Financial Regulator and the Central Bank, were criticised for remaining silent during the evolving crisis of the past few years but are now speaking out. Certain media and political commentators try to have both sides of the same coin. They criticise people for remaining silent and for not doing their job, while also criticising other independent agencies when they speak out. I ask the Deputy Leader to facilitate a debate on this issue. We have discussed the stability treaty but we should discuss it again. I am in favour of sitting next week to discuss it. I am sure that is a widely shared view. I call for a debate on the role of independent agencies and their public utterances on ongoing and evolving policy.