Mr. Paul Egan:

I cannot answer the question posed. I am aware that the Director of Corporate Enforcement or a member of his team who has given evidence before this committee has provided some information. Over the past 20 years there has been a sea change in rudimentary compliance with company law for making sure that there is timely information, which means that any one of us now is able to click onto a website and in practically every case we would be able to find a company’s accounts and the names of directors. There is that level of transparency and there is an immediacy of information. In addition, the Irish law, as well as having copied British law for many years, has introduced, for example, restrictions on directors.

A statistic that was quoted here was that between 2007 and 2018, 1,860 directors were made subject to restriction orders and more than 240 were disqualified. It is not the same as sending people off to jail but if one can get people off the pitch unless they comply with conditions, that has to be a positive move.