Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes, for precisely the reason the Senator raised. It may very well be the case that should have happened with Central Bank employees and that facility should be there, and it is about how we can do that appropriately. Of course, the six-year period was chosen based on the Statute of Limitations and so on, but it is really about preventing what has been a practice of strategic resignations, which are not okay. This is where the State is aware there is a difficulty, in particular because of an individual rather than an institution, and if that individual moves to another bank, crucially, he or she is not able to be followed up in any meaningful way. If there is a concern about an individual in the financial services of whatever kind who is using people's money or pension fund, it is very important he or she cannot simply get away from a pattern of fraudulent or poor behaviour of any kind simply because he or she has resigned, with the State and financial institutions left powerless.

The Senator correctly identified the balances around those issues. Whenever we come to legislation of this kind or relating to administrative processes where, in particular, as he identified, we are taking matters away from the courts and moving them to administrative functions, which we must do to an extent for State efficiency, we have to consider things from the point of view of the individual. I do not mean just from the point of view of specific individuals and individual rights holders but also from the point of view of the individual we do not like.