Dr. Eamonn Cahill:

It is fair to say that one of our motivations to bring forward this new legislation was to give a broader portfolio of responses to infringements. Under the current Act we are very restricted. We have only the nuclear option of an actual prosecution and, given the nature and the diversity of exporters we are dealing with and the range of different infringements that can be encountered, we felt that that was unduly restrictive. To give the Deputy a flavour of the exporters we deal with, at one end of the spectrum we deal with large multinationals involved in multimillion euro export transactions. They have in place dedicated trade compliance departments. They are very sophisticated internally and so on. At the other end of the spectrum we deal with SMEs and indeed micro-enterprises, which may have literally two or three individuals to ten people, so they are in a very different place, yet they are still obliged to comply with the same overarching regulations and so on. From time to time we will come across companies that have breached the regulations purely because of a lack of awareness rather than by any criminal intent, so it is appropriate that we work with them to help them to come into compliance, hold their hand, essentially, and help them navigate through the regulations. There is a spectrum of different potential infringements, not all of which warrant the resource commitment, and I stress that the resource commitment of mounting a prosecution is very significant. That is why we are seeking to have a broader suite or portfolio of responses to the different scenarios to reflect better the diversity of exporters we encounter out there. The authorised officers will be officials of the Department, so there will be internal checks and balances in the form of formal procedures and guidance documents for us in order that we have a consistent approach to determining whether something warrants a slap on the wrist or something much more serious, up to and including court actions.