Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State and I understand that he could not take the amendment on board. I am not proud of any particular version of it but the idea that there should be some way in reserve of bringing common sense into the administration of this legislation is important. In the amendment, I tried to tiptoe through the minefield of not offending European law in doing it.

I will say two things by way of a footnote to all of this. I welcome what the Minster of State is doing and thank him for listening to us. One of the most amusing aspects of this is that organisations write one a letter saying that one is a PEP and the first thing they ask for is proof that one is the person to whom they are writing, which is a complete joke.

Second, I ask the Minister of State to take a look at the provisions of section 40 in respect of the capacity of one institution to take on board the due diligence of another. It applies to everybody in the community except PEPs. When it comes down to opening a credit card account, having to prove it all again just because someone is the son-in-law of a Senator is excessive. That could be tweaked in the manner I have set out in a subsequent amendment. I am grateful to the Minister of State for his reasonable approach to this and I look forward to being able to deal with this properly on Report Stage.