asked the Taoiseach if he will state the date upon which the Report of the Central Bank in proof form was first communicated to the members of the Government.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Central Bank Report.
As reading is slow and difficult for me, may I ask permission for my Parliamentary Secretary to read my replies?
May I draw the Deputy's attention to a reply given by me in this House on Wednesday last, in the course of which I said: "I consider that it would not be proper or in the public interest to establish a practice by which particulars of matters submitted to the Government could be elicited by questions in this House."
In this particular case, however, I am prepared, exceptionally, to inform the Deputy that the Report of the Central Bank of Ireland for the year ended 31st March, 1951, which is no doubt the report to which the Deputy refers, was circulated to the members of the Government on the 15th October, 1951.
The document has been referred to as having been circulated in "proof" form. It was circulated in that form with a view to minimising delay in complying with the statutory requirement that the report should be presented to each House of the Oireachtas "immediately" upon its receipt by the Minister for Finance. The circulation of the report in proof form did not, of course, imply that the text of the report was being submitted for the approval or sanction of the Government; it was circulated to the members of the Government merely for information.
May I ask the Taoiseach whether, in view of the subsequent repudiation of the report by the Government, he took any steps to inform the chairman and directors of the Central Bank that it was the intention of the Government publicly to repudiate the contents of the report?
The Central Bank is an independent body with its own duties and responsibilities. The Government is independent of the Central Bank and can adopt its own policy. Any question of conversations between the two bodies is a matter for each to determine for itself. I do not know that there have been any conversations. The Minister for Finance may have had a conversation, but I am not at this moment able to say. I have no knowledge as to whether the Minister for Finance either did or did not speak to the Governor of the Central Bank.
May I take it from the Taoiseach's answer to my supplementary question that, in fact, the Government took no steps to inform the Central Bank that it was proposed to repudiate its report?
The Central Bank has a statutory duty imposed upon it to safeguard the integrity of the currency and to publish its report. It is an independent body, just as a commission is, and the Government, with respect to any reports it gets, can take any action that it sees fit to take without giving any notice, if it so chooses. As I say, that report was circulated for information.