Senator Bacik calls for a Coherent Economic Strategy and Debate on Banking
Order of Business
Senator Ivana Bacik: Like Senator Walsh, I was very impressed by David Begg on “Questions & Answers” last night. Sitting in the studio, I was particularly impressed by how much the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, appeared to agree with David Begg. The strength of what he had to say lay in the fact that the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has put forward a ten-point economic plan for economic recovery that is impressive in the breadth and range of issues which it addresses, but also impressive in the absence of any equivalent coherent plan from the Government. It is long past time that the Government put forward a coherent plan, and I hope that last night’s agreement and apparent courtship between David Begg and the Minister of State may give rise to some sort of national solidarity pact on the way forward. Everybody in the country is crying out for an economic strategy that will lead us towards recovery.
I echo calls from other Senators for a debate on banking. I stated that the country is crying out for a national recovery plan, but it is also crying out for accountability from the top bankers. There have been calls across both sides of this House for better regulation, but we have a regulation system and recent legislation to deal with all this. For example, we created the Office of Director of Corporate Enforcement in 2001, the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority in 2003, and the Market Abuse Regulations in 2005. As a criminal lawyer, I can say that there are criminal offences in the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 which are applicable to the sort of things we are seeing at the top levels of the banks today. The problem is not with the lack of legislation, but with the lack of enforcement, with a culture where non-compliance was tolerated for far too long, and where the Garda fraud squad has been afraid to investigate because it has not been given any sense that this would be a good thing to do. We need to have a debate on the enforcement of existing laws, so that we see a situation like that which occurred in America, where bankers in Enron were indicted on charges of conspiracy, a basic charge known to our criminal law.
When is the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill likely to come to the House? I have been asked by many people for whom this is a matter of great concern, and it would be useful for us to know that.