Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 3:

In page 4, line 2, after “House.” to insert the following:“For the purposes of this section information shall include all written, verbal, electronic or other communication to and from the Central Bank concerning banks operating in the State, including the IFSC. The information shall include information from the covered institutions, their auditors, legal representations on behalf of such bodies, and information from representative bodies, government departments, public agencies, the European Central Bank, the European Commission and banking institutions in other jurisdictions.”.

One of the features of the work done so far, to which the Minister has referred, by Mr. Nyberg, Mr. Watson, Mr. Regling, Mr. Honohan and others is a lack of written records. They have referred to the fact that there are no minutes for meetings and a lack of records. This amendment is proposed to try to help to get a grip on these gaps in the system, which were very adversely commented upon by the authors I have mentioned. Are there other forms of communication - electronic, written, verbal - to cope with the lack of records concerning banks within the State, including those at the IFSC? There are two banks at the IFSC, Sachsen Landesbank and Depfa, which seem to have had a very shadowy existence and to have contributed much to the difficulties in September 2008. Indeed, the Governor of the Central Bank referred to that fact recently. Did the auditors know what was going on and should they have told people? That is why they are included in my amendment. I have also included legal representatives of various bodies and information held by representative bodies, Departments, public agencies, the ECB, the European Commission and banking institutions in other jurisdictions. There is a lot that we have not found out yet which is why I have tried to put a very wide definition of "information" into this Bill in order that we can get to discuss some of the issues for which there is a serious absence of records. The inquiry needs to determine all of the influences which came to bear on the night of the bank guarantee. We need them to be included in the context of information to be supplied to the committee, which is the purpose of this amendment.