Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The reports on the comments made by Mr. Remy Farrell, senior counsel, were most alarming. I will go through some of them. He referred to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement. The director, Mr. Ian Drennan, had said the office needed five forensic accountants to keep up with the volume of complaints coming in, yet the office has only one. Clearly, this is not up to standard.

One quote on forensic computer analysis, a core part of the investigatory functions of the office, struck me in particular. Mr. Farrell said:

So if you’re going to commit an elaborate fraud, make sure to password lock your computer, even if it’s a really obvious password. That should buy you at least two to three years.

Perhaps this was something of a rhetorical flourish, but the comments were alarming. We need reassurance that resources are being deployed. White collar crime is what brought the State to its knees. Arguably, there are all sorts of issues, but certainly there is a fear, as well as a concern, among the public that white collar crime was part of what led to the collapse of the economy.

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