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

I thank the witnesses. That is very encouraging. I honestly believe that this cannot come quick enough. I appreciate the need to get it right and I understand 100% that it is complex. I sincerely hope that when we see it, it does not fall into the trap of trying to make co-operatives companies, because they are not. While issues relating to responsibility and governance are important, co-operatives are not the same as companies. We will be resisting any move to try and make them all the same. We need to recognise and celebrate their difference.

In the Department's submission, it is mentioned that Ireland has a reputation for being a "well-regulated and business-friendly place to establish and operate businesses and the Department is keen to ensure that this is maintained and even enhanced". In a recent interview conducted by Aaron Rogan in The Business Post, William Fitzgerald, who used to work for Google's policy unit, said that all they needed to do was drop one sentence into The Financial Timesthat Ireland was not a good place to do business, and that would "put the fear of God into the Fine Gael press room". I think it is quite a sad state of affairs to hear that. In the witnesses' own experience in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, would an accusation that Ireland is not a friendly place to do business cause the kind of chaos that was reported in the The Business Post?