Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 3:

In page 26, to delete lines 23 to 37.

The Minister of State will be aware I raised this on Committee Stage and during pre-legislative scrutiny. I have strong feelings about this. I do not know why we are anonymising the details of these offenders. I know what the broader benefit is and it is to them. I do not see any benefit beyond that. The idea a person cannot be named because it might jeopardise the stability of financial markets or where it "would cause disproportionate damage to the relevant director", is not the type of immunity afforded to ordinary people. That kind of immunity being afforded people regarding the sort of offences we are considering here gives me grave concern.

I will make a prediction that if this Bill goes through without this amendment, we will not see many names in the public domain and that is regrettable. I do not believe in public shaming or anything like that, but in order for justice to be done, it has to be seen to be done. In this case, affording people the capacity of anonymity is very unwise. We might pause for a moment and reflect on the positive impact on the markets a real step in the direction of openness and transparency might have. This smacks of a bit of secrecy and the publication of the name acts in itself as a deterrent. The openness and transparency that would be there, far outweighs any potential benefit or impact on the markets.

We should not be putting into legislation the capacity for people to avoid having their name in the public domain when they are involved in the type of offences we are discussing. If they have transgressed to the point they will be sanctioned, their names should be made public. I have not heard a good argument against this. We have debated and talked about what the Minister of State sees as the potential detrimental impact. I see a potential positive impact of openness and transparency, but I welcome the Minister of State's views.

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