Diarmuid Wilson (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Noonan, to the House. Fianna Fáil supports this Bill, which is a technical amendment to the Central Bank Act to allow current and former Central Bank officials to give evidence on a confidential basis to the banking inquiry. As the Minister has outlined, section 33AK of the Central Bank Act 1942 will be amended to provide a gateway for the disclosure of confidential information by the Central Bank to the Oireachtas Joint Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis. That will enable the officers of the Central Bank to disclose information to this specific joint committee, but not to any other committee, on the condition that the information disclosed remains confidential, thereby respecting the professional secrecy requirements as set out in EU law. It will also provide that Standing Orders may be enacted so that any Member of either House of the Oireachtas to whom confidential information is provided and who fails to comply with the provisions of professional secrecy in respect of that information may be subject to the sanction of the Houses of the Oireachtas in accordance with the rules and Standing Orders of the Houses.

However, the issue of the ECB's participation in the inquiry remains unresolved. The apparent refusal of the ECB to participate in the banking inquiry is completely unacceptable and as much pressure as possible should be put on it to fully co-operate.

I take this opportunity to commend the members of the banking inquiry who are doing an excellent job. They have been fair and balanced to date and while my party believes there should have been an independent statutory inquiry into the banking collapse, we are satisfied that the banking inquiry is conducting its affairs in a balanced and fair manner. I commend our colleagues in this House, Senators Susan O'Keeffe, Michael D'Arcy, Sean Barrett and Marc MacSharry, who are contributing significantly as part of the banking inquiry team.

I have concerns regarding the amount of money the legal representation is costing the taxpayer. I ask the Minister to use his good offices to see if anything can be done in that regard. We will be supporting the Bill on all Stages.