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

Under Article 2.1 of the Council Decision 98/415/EC I am required to consult the ECB formally on any new legislative provisions relating to the Central Bank. The ECB has made the point that the scope of section 33AK(6) of the Central Bank Act 1942 should be broadened to comply with Article 37.2 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks, known as the ESCB. At present, section 33AK(6) refers only to the obligations for professional secrecy in the supervisory EU legal acts in respect of the onward transmission of information but does not refer to the secrecy obligations under the ESCB statute. Therefore, I am bringing forward this amendment to broaden the scope of section 33AK(6) to include the ESCB statute. Members will recall that in my Second Stage speech I said that this arose after consultations with the ECB which proposed that we would make this amendment.