Ms Isolde Goggin:

The criminal enforcement powers we have are extremely strong and require absolute justification to be used. We cannot go and use those powers to do a fishing expedition in any company. Those are the rights guaranteed to individuals and companies by the rule of law and by the Constitution. If we are to get a search warrant to search a company and seize evidence, we need to go before a judge to swear that we have reasonable grounds to believe there is evidence located in the company. We will not do it without that. I am happy to say none of the staff would do it. The judge would not give us a warrant if we did not have reasonable grounds.

Where does one get reasonable grounds? In a criminal prosecution. As Mr. Fergal O'Leary said earlier, one gets them from witness evidence. We have had several people come to us and we have done much work trying to encourage them to come forward. We are talking about experienced investigators on our staff. We have deliberately recruited several ex gardaí. A detective sergeant from the Garda fraud bureau is seconded to us. These people know how to work with witnesses and how to question them.

Regarding the industry in question, nobody has ever brought us to the point where we could validly seek a warrant. None of these matters are closed. As my colleague said, our doors are always open. People can come in and talk to us. We are willing to listen to anybody at any time. However, we need somebody to bring this up to the point if any further action is to be taken.