Sir, - I have been asked by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr Michael McDowell, to refer to a report by Siobhan Creaton on the independence of the Financial Regulator (The Irish Times, September 19th).
Sir, - I have been asked by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr Michael McDowell, to refer to a report by Siobhán Creaton on the independence of the Financial Regulator (The Irish Times, September 19th). The report suggests that by launching the Blue Book on Financial Regulation by Jonathan Westrup last week, the Minister intended to lend support to its criticism of the legislation now before the Dáil. He did not.
The Minister is happy from time to time to accept invitations to launch worthwhile contributions to public debates. In doing so, the Minister does not espouse the author's views. In the instant case, he readily accepted the invitation without seeing the text and he is glad to have done so.
The Minister explained at the launch both in his speech and in a subsequent interview with journalists present how the current legislation had come about. He did not criticise that legislation in any way. - Yours, etc.,
ALAN MULLIGAN,
Press Officer,
Department of Justice,
Equality and Law Reform,
St Stephens Green,
Dublin 2.