Results 1,141-1,160 of 1,683 for speaker:Derek McDowell

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: That can only be done prospectively. Can it be applied to existing assets? If, for example, a fund has a stock of Russian property can it suddenly decide to say that this is a sub-fund which it is now creating for its Russian property in the border regions of Chechnya or whatever? In other words, does it apply to existing assets or only to assets acquired after the Act is in place?

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: There is no prohibition on including existing assets in it, is that right?

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: Subsection (2) of the new section 29 appears to give the Minister the power to create indictable offences by regulation, which is a dubious if not undesirable way to proceed. The usual practice has been to create indictable offences through primary legislation. The power is now being given to the Minister and perhaps even to IFSRA. Indictable offences can incur fines of up to €10 million....

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: What does subsection (2) of the new section 29 mean? It does not make much sense to me. It stipulates that regulations under the section may contain such incidental, supplementary and consequential provisions as appear to be necessary or expedient for the purposes of those regulations, including provisions creating indictable offences. It seems to provide the Minister with the power to create...

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: While those of us who are not expert in the field or who do not have much connection with it think we know what constitutes insider trading, I have no recollection of a high-profile prosecution under market abuse law in Ireland. Are the provisions theoretical or does it happen? How frequently have prosecutions taken place under market abuse law and what has been the typical outcome? We have...

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: Section 30 seems to provide a civil remedy in so far as it allows a person to seek compensation in the event that he or she has lost out as a result of the use by another person of insider knowledge. The provision seems to be contingent on it being proved in the first place that somebody has contravened the law. It will not be a question of taking a civil case in the normal way where one must...

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: Are we providing that a person must first be shown to be guilty of an offence under market abuse law before he or she can be sued for compensation by somebody who has lost out? Is it a requirement to first convict a person?

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: Can one take a case for compensation and allege during its course that somebody has contravened the law without that having previously been proven?

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: What markets is it intended to include?

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: Will the effect of this power in practice be that insider trading legislation will apply to more smaller companies? Is that, in effect, what we are saying?

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: The Leas-Chathaoirleach is racing ahead of me. I made this point on Second Stage but we did not have time to tease it out. The directive applies only to public offerings of €2.5 million or more. I am no expert on these matters but I would be interested to know how often we would have offerings of this kind. I suspect we would not have more than a few a year. This would appear to exclude...

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: Does the Minister of State have any idea?

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: Is it reasonable to say fewer than a dozen in any given year would be over that threshold amount?

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: The point I am trying to make is that we are talking about the exception rather than the rule. The Minister of State is correct, section 44 provides that various warnings are to be given to potential investors to the effect that past performance may not be a realistic guide to future performance, simulated performance may not be a reliable guide to future performance and so on and so forth....

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: The purpose of the directive is to give some sort of comeback against individuals who are involved in drawing up the information included in the prospectus. We are then going on to say that, in fact, most companies offering shares need not bother doing this, which appears to me to devalue the whole purpose of the directive in the first place. I understand where the Minister is coming from.

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: The purpose of these sections is to put an onus on individuals drawing up a prospectus to ensure that its contents are correct, but we seem to be going out of our way to make this onus a light one, as this amendment allows people to evade responsibility if they did not know that something was wrong. We do not put them under any obligation to determine, or at least make reasonable inquiry, as...

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: Has anyone ever been convicted or sued on foot of a misstatement or a wrong—?

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: I do not want statistics. I would like an indication that the section has been applied in any serious sense.

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: We are transposing a directive which puts responsibility on people drawing up a prospectus. It is partly replacing or replicating existing law. It would be useful for the debate — I appreciate that the Minister of State does not have the information here — if we had some idea of whether the existing law is applied. Perhaps I should know that, but I do not. It would be helpful to inform...

Seanad: Investment Funds, Companies and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (26 Apr 2005)

Derek McDowell: I know the Minister of State will be familiar with the fact that for some years now the CRO has been striking off companies for not filing returns. Perhaps he can give us some information on that. Is that campaign still continuing and to what extent has it been successful? I assume this section and the following section are intended to facilitate that.