Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

The intention behind the Bill, namely, to facilitate companies which may wish to establish headquarters here, attract funds and other matters. Everyone in the House must support that intention. However, I wish to record my party's concerns in respect of the legislation.

The first of these relates to the powers of the Minister. I have been a Member of the House for almost three years and I have yet to witness a statutory instrument being challenged by resolution of the House. The way in which secondary legislation is dealt with is inadequate. Due to other demands, we would never use Private Members' time to deal with such matters.

I have a number of concerns with regard to the country's reputation. I was encouraged by the comments made yesterday by the Governor of the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland in respect of this matter. We must ensure that we do everything possible to restore the country's reputation. In that context, we must be extremely careful with regard to responding too quickly to corporate-driven legislation. There has been a great deal of discussion with regard to developer-driven planning. In many instances, corporations tend to drive certain items of legislation. The introduction of such a substantial amendment at such a late stage is an example of that.

As a result of the assurances we have been given by everyone I contacted about the matter, including Revenue and others, I am happy to allow the Bill to pass. However, it is important to put on the record the concerns my party has about how secondary legislation is produced, the ministerial powers granted in this Bill, the fact other accounting procedures are recognised and an amendment came so late, and re-emphasise the importance which must be attached to proper regulation. If we are encouraging companies to come here from Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands or Bermuda, we must ensure they are coming here in order to improve their reputations not to damage ours.

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