Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to ask about the section dealing with the penalties. The penalty of €10 million is very small for the size of some of the entities involved that have been guilty of market abuse. Irish courts are not going to sentence anybody to ten years in respect of a market abuse offence. I am not aware that there have ever been comparable convictions in Ireland which resulted in prison sentences and certainly not of that length.

Given the fines that now apply in the US, the UK and quite a lot of continental countries, is €10 million not a very small amount? I know it is big in terms of small domestic businesses, but should there not be a percentage element to give significant variation to reflect the size of the entity which might be guilty of market abuse or the size of the entity for which the individual may be working?