Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As we become increasingly dependent on technology, the way consumers interact with businesses is changing rapidly. Although there are significant benefits to that, it does come with greater risk of fraud and, unfortunately, it seems that is what we are seeing at the moment. The fact that there is possibly a large number of bogus and fake companies must be addressed as a matter of urgency. I wrote to the Minister's Department in July regarding the issue but the response from the Department was pretty woeful. It previously insisted that the CRO relies on a good faith approach. It is clear that is easier for business and it is effective but it is also clear that it leaves the register open to serious abuse, which we are now seeing. We can clearly see what is happening in the context of a significant number of companies being registered. I refer to 100 companies that were registered to one address. One fake company registered using the address of the CRO itself. We need action on this issue. I appreciate that time is limited.

I am happy to follow up with the Minister later regarding how we can work together to end what seems to be a fairly widespread practice. We need to stamp it out.

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