Ms Fiona O'Dea:

The Deputy made the point with regard to the importance of limited liability for directors and how it prevents personal exposure where there is business failure. It is all about entrepreneurial activity, contribution to economic growth and so forth. It is not an absolute right. In return for the privilege of limited liability, directors are required to act in good faith. They are required to comply with the various legal requirements. We have a number of anti-transactional avoidance measures and we are beefing them up with this Bill. Ireland would be very advanced in terms of those anti-transactional measures and the remedies that are available to deal with the misuse of limited liability. However, it requires creditors to go to court to enforce their rights. There is always going to be the issue of costs. When the CLRG looked at this, it raised the issue of costs. With regard to access to the courts, this Bill is not going to address that but it is something the Department of Justice has been considering and has looked at. A review group looked at access to the civil judicial system, including the issue of costs. It produced an implementation plan last year and one of the actions that has come out of it will hopefully provide that liquidators could be funded through third-party funding where they go to court to enforce those rights and have access to asset-swelling measures. That would be a welcome development, I am sure, for many. That is intended to happen next year.