Oireachtas Banking Inquiry Chairman welcomes Central Bank (Amendment) Bill

22/01/2015

Chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis Chairman Ciaran Lynch has welcomed the tabling of the Central Bank (Amendment) Bill which will enable the Committee to have access to certain confidential banking information held by the Central Bank of Ireland.

Chairman Ciaran Lynch TD: “The Bill, which is before the Seanad today and will go before the Dáil next week, is a very important piece of legislation which will help the Joint Committee access what has been up to now confidential information.

“To date, we have had a highly co-operative and constructive engagement with the Central Bank. However, at an early stage of its programme of work, the Committee identified the need to get access to a number of documents or categories of documents held by the Central Bank so that we could adequately fulfil our mandate to inquire into the reasons Ireland experienced a systemic banking crisis

“We were aware that a substantial problem existed, namely that the Central Bank was statutorily prohibited from disclosing certain categories of confidential documents. This Bill is required to legally clear the way for the Central Bank to disclose the information which it is willing to do once the Act is passed. The Act, when passed, will provide access to Central Bank information for the Committee and Inquiry team and we will use this information to review and question the causes of the crisis, the crisis itself and post crisis actions.

“This will be the first time this access has been granted. The Committee is mindful of this unique access and will treat the information with the highest levels of confidentiality”

All media enquiries in relation to the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry should be addressed to:

Ciaran Brennan,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Communications Unit,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2

P: +3531 618 3903
M: 086-0496518
F: +3531 618 4551

Committee Membership

Deputies

Ciarán Lynch (Chairman)
Pearse Doherty
Joe Higgins
Michael McGrath
Eoghan Murphy
Kieran O’Donnell
John Paul Phelan

Senators

Sean D Barrett
Michael D’Arcy
Marc MacSharry
Susan O’Keeffe