Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016

oxygen

Hey

Does anyone know what happened to the Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2016. Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail seemed to be running with it a couple of weeks ago, I haven't heard a thing about it since, was it swept under the rug?

Thanks!

K-9

If I'm thinking of the right one FF proposed it again and it was accepted by the Dail, the Government were defeated basically. I think it goes to committee stage or whatever the usual procedure is now.

glacial_pace71

The Bills Office of the Oireachtas keep a very good list on their website.

Bills get numbered, e.g. No.1 of 2016 and so forth. (Obviously, if enacted they'd have a different number, as they could be passed in a year other than that in which they were initiated). The traditional way for an outside observer to distinguish the Govt Bills from Opposition was to look for a set of initials in the listing, e.g. if [PMB] appeared alongside the title then you'd know that it was a Private Members' Bill, and therefore with little/no hope of getting to or past a second stage reading.

Bills can be introduced/presented in the Dáil or Seanad. However, the latter House of the Oireachtas can only initiate legislation if it's not a 'money Bill', i.e. if it doesn't give rise to a charge on exchequer funds.

The list is available from the following link:

http://www.oireachtas.ie/ViewDoc.asp?DocId=-1&CatID=59&m=b

Needless to say, Opposition Bills are now very much in play. So there's no point in a "Free Pony for Every Child and a bottle of vino for their Parents Bill" if there's a danger that it could get from a Second Stage Reading to Committee Stage, where everyone would have to embarrassingly go line by line through the joke Bill, i.e. it could never progress to Report Stage. (In the past it was easier for Opposition deputies to table something in the full knowledge that it'd be shot down, and so could then decry a 'heartless Minister' and/or 'faceless bureaucrats' for saying that it was the legal equivalent of a pile of slight and just couldn't be enacted without the President referring it to the Supreme Court).

On Bill No.24/2016 itself? It'll take a bit of to/fro between the Chief Whip's Office and the FF Whips but it should get committee time in due course:

http://www.oireachtas.ie/viewdoc.asp?DocID=31840&&CatID=59

Btw the Govt legislation programme is very, very modest but it includes (in the non-priority list) a mention of some separate proposals to consolidate the various Central Bank Acts from 1942 onwards:

http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/Taoiseach_and_Government/Government_Legislation_Programme/Legislation_programme_Summer_2016.pdf

(The problem is that the funding model for the Central Bank's regulatory functions includes sticking the financial industry - and ultimately consumers and businesses - with the cost of it, e.g. see some proposals bandied about: https://www.centralbank.ie/regulation/marketsupdate/Documents/CP95%20Consultation%20Paper%20on%20Funding%20the%20Cost%20of%20Financial%20Regulation.pdf ).

No matter how they legislate to amend the statutory scheme there still won't be a free ice cream for everyone. (However, it'll test the 'new politics' to see if the Govt can duly bend and refrain from voting down Opposition legislation that isn't outlandish).