Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The section deals with financial services. I am sure the House endorses the Minister's efforts in respect of financial services and discussions with the Central Bank where things have been going appallingly. Banks are down for €64 billion, insurance companies have closed, including another one this week, all the building societies have disappeared, many credit unions are in trouble and accounts are unreliable. Much stricter regulation is needed in this area. I endorse the Minister's approach of providing that the new competition and consumer protection commission will have a say with the Central Bank. We have to pull up our socks in the area of financial services because the collapse of the sector has cast a pall over all Members of both Houses since 2008.

The input the Minister can make under that section will be most important. We wish him well in that because we continue to make mistakes six years into the crisis and, as I said on the Order of Business earlier, the fact we are now asked to bail out a company registered in Malta through the insurance fund illustrates the magnitude of that task. More power to the elbow of the competition and consumer protection commission in that because it has not been an outstanding area of economic policy heretofore. I do not wish to oppose section 87 but it is a very important part of the Bill and I commend the Minister on including it.