Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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My apologies. I see it there.

I have a second issue, just to be sure to be sure on this, and this is why we tease these things out on Committee Stage. There is many a piece of legislation I go through just to see the intention and this piece has never ever been discussed so bear with me. Obviously, the courts can actually draw from the discussions that happen on Committee Stage in terms of the intention on the passing of the legislation where there is vagueness, so it is important to tease these issues out. Regarding to the same section, if we look at subsection (c)(ii), it refers to "the degree of cooperation by the person with the Bank or any other relevant regulatory authority, agency or criminal investigative body" provided during investigation of the contravention.

This is obviously how we deal with law in terms of civil law, criminal law, etc. If a person has co-operated, the penalty may be more lenient than it was originally. What about people who are just not co-operative? This is about people who have co-operated and provided evidence. In some cases, there has been no need for an inquiry because people have agreed after the examination that they have committed a contravention. What about cases of people who are deliberately non-co-operative or evasive and who is frustrating the issue? Does the degree of non-co-operation come into this? As opposed to there being a positive in respect of a reduction in the imposition of a financial penalty for those who co-operate, does non-co-operation attract an additional penalty?