David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When one considers the level and depth of white-collar crime in the State over decades, as well as the inaction of this and many other Governments over the years, along with a level of tolerance and ambivalence towards white-collar crime, even if I attempted to commend the Minister on bringing forward the Bill, he would be quite rightly embarrassed and red-faced. I will not embarrass him because the Government's track record in dealing with white-collar crime is quite frankly appalling. The State and previous Governments have been, at best, ambivalent towards and, at worst, have tolerated white-collar crime for too long. The Bill allows for dealing with active and passive corruption. It prohibits active and passive trading of influence, a new offence which prohibits the active and passive bribery of a person who may be in a position to exert an improper influence over the act of a public official. It deals with corruption relating to office, employment, position or business employment, bribery to facilitate an offence, creating or using a false document, intimidation and corporate liability.

The corporate liability aspect of the Bill needs to be strengthened. It states that a company may be criminally liable if a director, manager, secretary, employee, agent or subsidiary commits an offence under the Bill with the intention of obtaining or retaining business for the body corporate or an advantage for it in the conduct of business. However, the Bill says it shall be a defence for a body corporate to prove it took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of the offence. When an offence is committed by a body corporate and it is proved the offence was committed with the consent, connivance or wilful neglect of senior officers, that person as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of an offence. That could be a way for companies to avoid responsibility for their actions and is an area of the Bill my party will seek to amend. The defence of reasonable action needs to be clearly and unambiguously explained. Members know from the Paradise Papers and the scandal involving AIB and other banks that financial institutions will use any chink in the legislative armour to squeeze more money out of the taxpayer and their customers.

Corruption comes in many different forms and ways. There has been institutionalised white-collar crime and corruption in the State that was facilitated and allowed by the passage of legislation. AIB made a pre-tax profit of €814 million in the first six months of this year. The tax on those profits is badly needed to deal with the crisis in our crumbling public services. AIB is enjoying the so-called "golden arrangement" as a result of a legislative change introduced in 2013 by the then Fine Gael-Labour Government. After all the austerity, brutal cuts and hardship that Fine Gael visited on ordinary people, those responsible in the banks are back in profit and are being told they are free from their obligations to the State. Happy days for the banks. However, these are not happy days for the 8,000 people in emergency accommodation or the 494 people lying on hospital trolleys today. The cosy tax-free deal for the banks amounts to a bailout and is being paid for by the suffering of citizens. The Taoiseach is happy to forego millions of euro that would address the crisis in housing. Like in the Apple tax debacle, which is another example of institutionalised white-collar crime, the Taoiseach's message is for the banks to keep people's money because the Government can tolerate citizens living in doorways and the sick going without treatment. The Taoiseach's talk of a republic of opportunity has again been exposed as a sham. He really means a republic of opportunism where his Government dances to the tunes of opportunistic bankers and elites in the State who have involved themselves in white-collar crime for decades.

The Government's track record on dealing with, challenging and holding people to account for white-collar crime is appalling. As weak as the Bill is, such changes in legislation are a tiny step forward. However, the reality is that very few who engage in white-collar crime in the State do any jail time. They are protected by the Government, the institutions of the State and legislation that Members very often supported. White-collar crime has consequences and is not victimless. We need to change the law in order to have much tougher sanctions so that those who engage in it know there are sufficient sanctions in place and they will pay a price. However, they will not get that from a Fine Gael Government.

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