Vol. 539 No. 2
12 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for Finance when he expects that the new structures for financial services regulation announced on 20 February 2001 will be operational; when he expects to appoint the members of the interim board for the IFSRA; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19045/01]
Planning for implementation of the Government decision announced on 20 February to establish the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority within the new structure of the Central Bank of Ireland and Financial Services Authority is now well under way. The Government yesterday approved the drafting of legislation on the basis of heads prepared by my Department in consultation with the Tánaiste's Department. I will now be consulting the European Central Bank with regard to the proposals.
Closely related proposals concerning the establishment of a statutory ombudsman scheme, consumer and industry consultative panels and other financial services regulation issues are being developed in parallel with this legislation. These will be provided for in a Bill, the provisions of which will be brought to Government as soon as they are ready.
It is my intention that the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority will operate from the beginning of 2002 and I hope to be in a position to introduce legislation in the autumn session to provide for this. In order to facilitate that target, I intend, in consultation with the Tánaiste, to set up an interim board for the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority on a non-statutory basis before the formal establishment of the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority.
In accordance with the recommendation of the McDowell report, it is my intention that this authority will be a public interest board. The non-executive members will be selected for their experience of legal, financial and consumer issues. It is also my intention that the chief executive and the consumer director will be appointed before the formal establishment of the new authority. Both these executives will also sit on the board of the authority. I will make an announcement on the membership of the authority in the normal way in due course.
When does the Minister intend to appoint the interim board and the chief executive? On the broad policy level, is he aware of reports that the ECB is unhappy with the structure as announced by the Government earlier this year? Is the Minister satisfied that the ECB's concerns are without foundation?
I hope to be in a position shortly to appoint the members of the interim board after consultation with the Tánaiste and then the board will go about the business of recruiting a chief executive and a consumer director. In order to speed up this process we have engaged outside legal expertise and a full-time team has been working on this for a number of months. As I said in my reply, the Government will approve the drafting of legislation on the basis of the heads of a Bill and we hope to have this legislation for the autumn with a view to having it enacted by 1 January.
That is a major undertaking and it is all systems go to have it in place. However, as I pointed out yesterday it is a very tight timetable.
And the ECB?
We will also send those heads to the ECB, with which we are in constant contact. When the Tánaiste and I proposed the dissolution some months ago after the McDowell report and so on, we communicated with the ECB which wrote back to us. It is very insistent that the Central Bank be independent on several issues. Negotiations have taken place to ensure we have complied fully with that. The ECB has, in one sense, the final say on matters relating to this so we will resolve any difficulties we may have.
Has the Minister drawn up the criteria he will look for among potential members of this board? Is the qualification likely to be that they be card-carrying members of Fianna Fáil or the Progressive Democrats?
I refer to appointments to the Pensions Commission. Nobody could be found there who is a card-carrying member of any party.
That is because there are no cumainn in North America.
Or Germany. I hope to appoint the board members as soon as possible. The interim authority will be set up as soon as possible. There will be no criteria regarding them being card-carrying members of any party.
