Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

I thank the Minister for his reply and I appreciate that when there are ongoing investigations the Minister is circumscribed as to what he can say. If we can talk about the generality of such cases, however, is the Minister prepared to ensure that once those cases are brought to his attention a monitoring process will be put in place by the relevant company supervision sections of his Department? That would ensure that potential beneficiaries of what appears to be an abuse of loopholes in company law will be able to continue to operate either as company directors or to trade in the marketplace in a way that enables them to evade the sort of responsibilities that other compliant company directors and operating companies must bear. Without prejudice to the outcome of the final case, it would appear that certain practices were engaged in, some of which may have been legal, though sharp. They enabled companies to evade their responsibilities, although we must await the outcome of the judgment; I am not specifically mentioning any particular case. In a buoyant economy, which we all welcome, and at a time of great demand for the provision of services, when competition can be difficult to regulate fairly, it is incumbent upon the Department and agencies under the Minister's aegis to ensure that a level playing pitch exists for all legitimate players, rather than a field day for all the cowboys.

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