Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all Senators who contributed and, in particular, thank them for their support for the Bill. It is good to come to the Seanad and have unanimous support across the parties and the Independents, for which I thank them.

A number of issues were raised. Senators Wilson and Cummins raised the participation of the European Central Bank. The Taoiseach had a conversation about this with Mario Draghi, who got his predecessor, Jean-Claude Trichet, to contact the Taoiseach. While there is some engagement, they have legal difficulties because the Parliament to which they are accountable is the European Parliament.

They would like to help, and if they could identify a legal forum by means of which they could provide information to the committee without any conflict with their other obligations, they would not be reluctant to do so. As late as this afternoon, Mr. Trichet indicated that he was somewhat open to engaging with the joint committee in some form. I think what he has in mind is perhaps travelling to Dublin, speaking at a suitable forum and answering questions from members of the joint committee there rather than at a hearing of the committee. The Taoiseach has communicated the information he gleaned from the engagement in which he partook. There is a process of contact in place. Whether Mr. Trichet attends a hearing of the committee is not that relevant, in my view. What is important is that he should provide all the information in his possession in respect of the decision making in which he, as governor of the European Central Bank, was involved at the time of the banking crisis.

A second important issue was raised with regard to the legal costs relating to the inquiry. It would not be proper for me to interfere in any way with the financial resources available to the committee. The committee must be independent, which is what the Seanad and the Dáil wanted when establishing it. The cost of the banking inquiry will be met from the budget of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. The annual accounts of the commission are audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General and the commission's Accounting Officer is accountable to the Committee of Public Accounts regarding the final audited version of these. I understand that the joint committee intends to publish the running costs of the inquiry on a regular basis. In the context of previous inquiries, we often only discovered the costs involved when deliberations had been concluded. Perhaps a year after an inquiry had finished its work, there would be a nasty surprise when the scale of the legal fees involved emerged. Publication of the running costs at intervals will keep matters on track and provide Members of the Oireachtas with the ability to exercise, even remotely, some financial control over the legal costs relating to the committee.

Senator Hayden referred to the possibility of further disclosures from the Governor of the Central Bank. I saw him deliver part of his evidence and I thought he spoke very freely. However, I do not know whether he was inhibited by the provisions of the Act that we are now amending from providing further information. If he was so inhibited, this Bill - which will be passed by the House today and by the Dáil next week - will afford him the opportunity to say anything further which he may believe it necessary to say. The main information that will be allowed to be provided as a result of the enactment of the Bill will be that which is documentary in nature rather than personal oral evidence. There are many sensitive documents that will be allowed to be provided as a result of the passage of the legislation.

Senator Quinn's suggestion was very interesting. The banks have quite sophisticated IT systems. I do not know whether they have the type of monitoring software to which the Senator referred. However, I will ask my officials to communicate his suggestion to the Central Bank in order to discover whether the latter might make it mandatory for the commercial banks to put in place some kind of electronic monitoring apparatus to support the regulatory interventions it carries out on quite a frequent basis.

This has been an interesting debate. There are new protections in place in the financial sector in respect of whistleblowing and there are obligations on key officeholders to disclose wrongdoing to the Central Bank. In that context, there have been major changes right across the regulatory regime that governs the banks since the advent of the crisis. Senior bankers are now obliged - both under law and at pain of criminal sanctions - to provide information in respect of any wrongdoing they come across in the course of their work. The system is, therefore, improving.

I thank Senators for their support. Senator Hayden referred to the announcements relating to quantitative easing made by Mario Draghi at 1.30 p.m. I am of the view that this initiative will be the benefit to the economy. Like the Taoiseach, I hope it will assist us in continuing to grow our economy, sustain our recovery and create more jobs. It is a very significant step and I hope it works.