Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a question about the process advisers. I was just sitting here thinking about them and the circumstances that would arise if they were to say they need a certain number of staff. They come from a firm. I am aware that they could be from a local solicitor's office or small firm but, equally, they could be from a firm with a considerable team of background staff. I am sure they will all be lovely people but is there anything to prevent them from saying they need two accountants, that they happen to have two such accountants in their firm and that the company with which they are dealing does not have qualified accountants? All of that is going to add to the cost. I am conscious of what Deputy Shanahan was saying in that we are talking about small companies. I understand completely the purpose of the measure but we need to guard against the possibility that the process advisers might insist on bringing in staff, which would add to a bill.

In a large examinership, this is not so onerous but when we are talking about amounts of €10,000 and €15,000 for additional requirements for staff for potentially up to 49 days, that would be burdensome. If I missed it, I will put my hand up but is there anything to prevent this from happening? I do not know if this might be by way of a code of practice. I stress that I do not know these process advisers. I am sure they are all lovely, fine upstanding people but we could have a situation whereby someone will insist that he or she needs a team of accountants and has them back in his or her own company because at the end of the day, the process advisers work for their company. If it is not there, consideration should be given to ensuring that this cannot happen unnecessarily. I understand it is tricky because we must balance that with the fact that the process advisers probably will need some additional help. However, if they are looking at the person who does a bit of part-time book keeping for the company and saying this person is not good enough and he or she needs a qualified accountant or two or five qualified accountants, we could end up with extra costs when this is trying to avoid that. The Minister of State's thoughts on that would be very welcome.