Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I mentioned this the last day and an Teachta Naughten referred to it. There are examples of firms that are doing their best to function and provide a service, employing workers in a fair and decent manner. If given an opportunity, they would trade out of the difficulties they are in.

On Committee Stage I gave the Minister the example of a firm in County Meath that is seeking to negotiate a fair resolution of its debt. However, that debt has been sold to a company that was not even registered on the day the sale took place which adds further complication. It is alleged that the staff of the particular company, the new company, are former members of the original company and yet the details cannot be found. The names are opaque and it is murky. We are told the debt ended up being sold at a discount to even what the business owner was trying to negotiate. The view would be that a liquidation process would commence and the assets would be sold off.

Here we have the dismantling of a functioning business for the purpose of firms selling off the constituent aspects of the business as scrap.

Ideally, the State should orientate all of its laws to ensure we have functioning, productive businesses that add significantly to the State. If this is happening to the particular gentleman in County Meath, there is no doubt that it is also happening to people in other counties. Given that most of the damage done to the State is the result of the murky opaque nature of relationships in the past, I cannot understand why any Minister for Finance would not want to make the system as clear as crystal in order that everybody would know exactly who was operating where and what the process being undertaken was. I ask the Minister to take this into consideration when dealing with these issues.

Also, one in six mortgage holders in my county-----

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