Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have not read the report, nor seen it, nor has it been brought to Cabinet, so I am impressed that Deputy Wallace has. I imagine the Deputy would have come to his conclusions about whether it was a whitewash or not before he read it. I will read it and form my own opinion on it once I have. I am advised by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, that the report will be brought to Cabinet this week or the week after and will be published thereafter.

Deputy Wallace will recall that, back in November of 2017, the Government published a package of actions that it is taking when it comes to cracking down on white-collar crime. It was entitled Measures to Enhance Ireland's Corporate, Economic and Regulatory Framework - Ireland combatting “white collar crime”. That was launched by me, the former Tánaiste, Deputy Fitzgerald, and the Minister for Justice, Deputy Flanagan, around this time last year. There are 28 actions we are taking to crack down on white-collar crime and they are very much under way. One of the key actions in the package is establishing the ODCE as a stand-alone company law, compliance and enforcement agency, and that is the direction of travel in terms of policy. We are taking it out of the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and making it a stand-alone agency in its own right so that it would be better equipped to pursue cases such as this.

There has also been additional resourcing for the ODCE. An additional €1 million provided for it next year to strengthen the work it does. In terms of legislation, the Government, back in July, signed into law the Companies (Statutory Audits) Act and also the shareholders' rights directive will be transposed into law by 2019. Before the recess, we passed the Criminal Justice (Corruption Offences) Act. A lot of legislation that needed to be put in place has been put in place. Additional resourcing has been given to the ODCE and our plan is to establish it as a stand-alone agency to give it more teeth.

See this speech in context