Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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We have legislation, be it labour, environmental or law, and those laws are equipped with their own enforcement mechanisms, which will be proportionate to the offence that they identify. I do not think that we should set up a body, the job of which is to support the growth of enterprise, and in some way to try to reserve to it a policing role in regard to areas like Revenue where Revenue has a panoply of powers available to it to enforce its codes. I do not see that we would be doing anything for the quality of Revenue enforcement by having a five-person local enterprise office in a county seeking to challenge a business in regard to enforcement. I do not think this is something we would put into law. What we need is to have is a system where, like in other areas, there is an expectation that companies which apply will be compliant, but should not tie it into a legislative framework where they would be penalised and all grants would have to refunded, or whatever it would be. That is not a sensible way to proceed.