Mr. John Newham:

I thank the Deputy. In terms of international comparators, especially with regard to the ease of doing business, there are different comparators that drill into different details. I might hand over to my colleague, Mr. Shine, on that matter. The World Bank and the World Economic Forum carry out international comparisons. Comparisons are also carried out at EU level. We score fairly highly in respect of the ease of doing business. I would have to look into the issue of compliance rates because different countries have different systems. I would need to look into that further.

The Deputy had a query on the networks. There are certainly international networks, especially at EU level, related to enforcement and so on. Even in a national context, different features come into play. For example, there are cross-departmental groups on money laundering that feed in information. That may be relevant to the work of this office in respect of corporate enforcement. There are such networks.

With regard to ongoing reform, high on my agenda is reform of the Limited Partnerships Act 1907, which goes back 100 years. It is limited. This may be relevant to Deputy Shanahan's earlier question. With regard to the Pandora papers, the focus in an Irish context was on the use of limited partnerships. That is an area of reform we would like to progress. Things also bubble up in the work of the Company Law Review Group. Matters arise at that level. That group reports in to the Department.

On the question regarding the impact on companies, it is still early days. There is a time lag. We see insolvencies being notified to the Companies Registration Office but that takes place some time after the impact is felt on the street. The Department is carrying out analysis in that area through another division, formerly Forfás, so there is analysis. It is fair to say that, as the Deputy has pointed out, the Government supports do appear to have stalled increased closures but we expect to see an increase in the number of insolvencies, especially in the sectors most affected by Covid. That is one of the reasons the small companies administrative rescue process was progressed over such a short space of time. That will provide breathing space for small companies in those situations. The figures so far are lower than might ordinarily be expected. Does that sufficiently answer the Deputy's questions?