Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

I have my own reservations about secondary legislation. I have argued about it in regard to the Diseases of Animals Act in 2001 and the 1966 Act. Many of these issues can be dealt with in the consolidation Bill. It is important that is put in place. The powers of the Minister to make regulations are somewhat circumscribed, in terms of designating other accounting standards for use by a specified category of parent undertakings incorporated in Ireland. The measures are purely transitional. There is a time limit and a defined period.

I agree with Deputy Varadkar. We are all snowed under. Sometimes a statutory instrument is introduced by secondary legislation and we do not have time to scrutinise it, which is part of the problem. Perhaps it should be laid before the committee and we should work out a separate way of dealing with it. It could be laid before the House formally and then transferred for scrutiny by the committee, which can assess the situation and determine how many companies have applied. It will be entitled to determine the circumstances regarding the qualifying companies and there is a restricted period of four years. It will all be brought to an end on 31 December 2015. The Minister will apply the same standard to the United States as will be applied to everyone else. The measure may not be applicable, which is fair enough.

I hope there will not be extensive recourse to section 2. I agree with Deputy Varadkar that our reputation is of the utmost importance. The jobs in this sector are high quality and are at the upper end of the market. We need to keep our scrutiny, supervisory and financial control sections in place. There is a fair degree of scrutiny and supervisory jurisdiction being inserted in this Bill. We have a belt and braces approach. I would be surprised if issues arose regarding companies. We are a place of domicile in terms of funds and our jurisdiction and supervisory regime is such that, because of our reputation, people want to come here.

The reason there is a significant amount of volatility as a result of the world financial crisis is that funds are now looking for homes, which they will only look for where they can be guaranteed that there is certainty, scrutiny, supervision and significant Government controls asserted through the legislative framework. It is important that our reputation is accentuated. Some of the amendments which were tabled were late and I accept the Minister's bona fides in that regard. The amendments stitched into the Bill improved the situation significantly. I am taking everything at face value. I know the Bill had to be passed before the end of the year and it is now ready to go.

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