Yesterday, David Drumm, the former chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank, was sentenced to six years for conspiracy to defraud and false accounting. It might have taken nearly ten years but the Irish people, who suffered immeasurably as a result of the actions of reckless bankers, finally have some sense of justice delivered. The damage done to the State by Anglo Irish Bank in particular was catastrophic. We should not forget that we are still paying the price of that damage because of the promissory notes and the IBRC liquidation and we will be paying for it for many decades to come. However, we cannot pretend that the conviction of David Drumm yesterday marks some sort of watershed moment. That just four people have been convicted for their roles in the banking crisis ten years after the event is hardly a ringing endorsement of the justice system when it comes to tackling white-collar crime, which continues to go unpunished and, in many cases, is unpunishable to this day. Over the next few months, we will all reflect on the tenth anniversary of the banking crisis. I do not believe many will feel any sense of real closure when that anniversary comes and goes.

There is a mountain of work for all of us in these Houses to do to ensure this scandal never happens again and to hold those responsible to account for their actions. Urgent action is required from this Dáil and from the Government. One of the reasons for the delay in securing the prosecution of Mr. Drumm, we are told, was the scale and complexity of the case. The Garda has said it requires additional powers to investigate white-collar crime. Will the Government be taking that recommendation on board? The Central Bank has also made a number of recommendations in respect of white-collar crime, including the setting up of a dedicated division within an existing criminal agency to investigate it and for a specialised prosecution unit to be established. They have called for implementing rules in order that senior individuals in financial institutions must provide the Central Bank with a document outlining what they are in charge of. Then, if a crime takes place, that senior-level individual can be held to account for the areas for which he or she was responsible. The Central Bank has also called for making reckless lending and reckless management a crime, as is the case across the water.

White-collar crime is not victimless. Along with the Central Bank and the Garda, which is calling for additional powers and resources, Sinn Féin has also added to the suite of actions that need to be taken. For example, Deputy Ó Laoghaire and I have sponsored the Multi-Party Actions Bill 2017, which is similar in fashion to the US-style class action suits whereby a number of victims can work together to take on a corporate entity in court. We have produced legislation that would make it a crime for bankers to lie to the Central Bank and which provides that they could be imprisoned as a result of so doing. Will the Government consider these proposals from the Garda, the Central Bank and Sinn Féin in order that white-collar crime can be dealt with robustly for once and for all and so we will not have to wait another ten years to see people held to account?

I certainly hope everybody in this House shares the view that we need to be dealing robustly with white-collar crime. We need to learn lessons from a banking crisis that has caused so much difficulty for so many families and businesses across the country. The conviction of David Drumm and his sentencing yesterday were, on one level, a recognition of the seriousness of the crimes that have been committed.

From a Government perspective, our job is to make sure we learn lessons from the past and put legislative measures and policy in place to ensure they are not repeated in the future. We will listen to everybody who has a sensible contribution to make in that regard. The Government published a suite of measures last November aimed at enhancing corporate governance, increasing transparency and strengthening Ireland's response to white-collar crime. Among the actions in the package is a criminal procedure Bill which, among other things, streamlines criminal procedures to enhance the efficiency of criminal trials. The Criminal Justice (Corruption Offences) Bill 2017 includes provision for recommendations arising from the Mahon tribunal and will substantially advance meeting Ireland's obligations under a number of international anti-corruption instruments. This major modernisation of corruption offences law will repeal and replace the seven previous Prevention of Corruption Acts of 1889 to 2010. Work on the development of the legislative framework for the establishment of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement as an agency has commenced and it is expected that the scheme of the Bill will give effect to this decision. It will be published in line with the delivery timelines the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, has outlined.

The Companies (Statutory Audits) Bill 2017 was published on 6 November 2017. The markets in financial instruments directive, MiFID II, has been implemented and, as of 3 May, the Bill is before the Dáil on Second Stage. The Criminal Justice (Corruption Offences) Bill was published and is progressing on schedule. The statutory review of the Protected Disclosures Act is well under way and will be published shortly. There is no shortage of legislative response coming from Government.

We will, of course, always listen to An Garda Síochána, the Central Bank and Opposition parties that have pragmatic and sensible approaches to providing a more comprehensive suite of legislation to respond to the modern challenges of white-collar crime.

This is not the first time I have raised this. I have raised it with the current Taoiseach and his predecessor. We have been arguing the case that we need to bring in a suite of measures to tackle white-collar crime, particularly in the financial institutions, for many years. The previous Governor of the Central Bank wrote to the former Minister for Finance asking him to legislate to make it an offence to lie to the Central Bank. Years later, the Government still has not dealt with that issue but is blocking the Bill that passed Second Stage in this House because of a money message. After his dodgy dealings with the €7.2 billion and when that bank continued to lend, David Drumm could not be charged with reckless lending because, unlike in the North or Britain and even after what we went through, reckless lending is not a crime. The Central Bank has been calling for it to be made a crime for many years. David Drumm could not be convicted of lying to the Central Bank because it is not a crime. In Britain, there is a need for senior bankers to identity the areas for which they are responsible in order that they cannot use the excuse of plausible deniability. However, that can be used by bankers in this jurisdiction.

We heard today that more than 170 people are taking cases to the Financial Services Ombudsman against one bank, AIB, because of the tracker scandal. If they want to see justice in court, they must take their cases individually because the Government is refusing to support the class actions Bill we have brought forward, which would allow for them to club together and take on these elites in society.

Will the Tánaiste agree with the proposal to set up a dedicated unit within an existing criminal agency for investigation and prosecution to deal with white-collar crime, as has been called for by the Central Bank of Ireland?

The Deputy called for a suite of measures; that is exactly what is happening. Last year, the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, introduced a suite of measures in November and he has added to it since then. There is a whole series of legislative responses which I have spoken about. The Deputy, like everybody else, will have an opportunity to raise specific issues he would like to see addressed through that legislation and he will get a response from the Minister, Deputy Flanagan. I am not going to get into what the content of individual legislative items will be without testing that and I am not going to give the Deputy an answer on the hoof.

What I will say is that the Government wants a comprehensive suite of measures to respond robustly to white-collar crime to make sure we protect consumers and do not allow the kind of banking decisions that were made in the past that virtually bankrupted this country. We are absolutely committed to that. This party wants to ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated, that boom-bust cycles do not happen in the future and that we do not allow a banking system to dominate an economy in a negative way such as happened in the past. As I said previously, if the Deputy has suggestions to make in the context of the debates that are happening - be it legislation coming from Sinn Féin or the Government - there will be more than ample opportunity to discuss the detail of those proposals in this House.