Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Hurley. I am up against the clock. Recent information has come to light regarding the Debenhams liquidation. Workers found documents that appear to show that the Debenhams group, which had been taken over by three vulture funds, including two banks, namely, Barclays and Bank of Ireland, was saddled with a floating charge of €200 million on the Irish operation.

It is safe to say that it should have been clear to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, when KPMG informed it of the liquidation and what was happening, that this demonstrated that this was a cynical, tactical liquidation that was orchestrated one year in advance to ensure that 1,000 workers would lose their jobs and not get a penny because artificial debts were imposed on the company.

An ex-employee of KMPG was involved as a liquidator in this transaction, which took place one year to the day before workers received their notice. Had it been received by anything less than one year, the €200 million debt would not have been there. It could not have been done. It explicitly exploited a loophole in company law, which the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment should have known about and which KPMG should have known about, and I suspect did know about.

Do any of our guests want to comment on how the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment could have missed this or whether it was aware of it? In any event, what do they think should be done to close such loopholes and make it illegal to allow this immoral and most unethical behaviour to prevail?