Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and I support the Bill he has brought before the House. I commend the Minister and the Taoiseach for their efforts to persuade the ECB to participate in the inquiry.

I commend the Minister on his speech in Dublin Castle on Monday.

The Minister mentioned a gremlin and I also have experience of one. I had sought to amend the Central Bank Reform Act 2010 with amendment No. 5, but the Act listed is the Central Bank Act 1942, which only contains 42 pages. I express my sympathy to officials in the Department of Finance who were trying to find pages 51, 52, 58 and so forth. Somewhere in the system, the gremlins that put an error in the Minister's amendments also put in a completely wrong reference. I apologise for any confusion and thank the departmental officials who called my office this morning while I was at the banking inquiry. These things happen, unfortunately.

The committee has got off to a good start, with a very enthusiastic membership and very capable Chairman. It is, as the Minister said, doing extremely important work. One must have a lender of last resort for a banking system. One would wish that the service would never be called upon but it was required on that occasion. I would hope that matters can be resolved. The only quibble I have is that those events took place in 2008 and we are now in 2015. It is a pity we did not try sooner to get to grips with the problems that arose in Irish banking.

I commend the Governor of the Central Bank on his openness in his dealings with the committee. Departmental officials are also being very open. Everybody is resolved that such a cataclysmic event, costing an estimated €40 billion, does not happen again. I support the Bill, with a number of proposed amendments. Unfortunately, some of the amendments do not make any sense at present because of the gremlins mentioned previously. All of the amendments, if they are of use to the Minister, have the aim of strengthening the Minister's hand. They are offered in that spirit. I will not be calling any votes on the amendments I have proposed. This is a commendable endeavour and it is great that so many entities are co-operating, including the Committee on Procedure and Privileges. I hope the result will be good for the country in the end. It is a very short period of work, as the Minister knows; we must finish by October. I hope the committee completes the task and that its findings will be of value to the Minister.

The Minister referred to the other reports which had much to contribute, including those from Mr. Wright, Mr. Nyberg, Mr. Watson and Mr. Regling. Several of those reports' authors have been before the committee and have shed much light on the issues involved. Indeed, some of the interesting findings of the committee so far are reflected in my amendments. I strongly support the Bill.