Results 3,721-3,740 of 3,797 for speaker:Ciarán Cannon

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (20 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I thank the Minister for her response. The amendment we are tabling places an onus on the Director of Corporate Enforcement and his or her staff to be exact and definite in establishing what types of documents they need to remove from a company's premises. They have powers of separation under which they may enter a premises and deem which documents are pertinent to the case they are making....

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (20 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: On the premises.

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (20 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I move amendment No. 11: In page 6, after line 47, to insert the following: "(vii) the constitutional rights of the company or the holder of the information, and (viii) the rights of any person, who is the subject of the information, under the Data Protection Acts 1988 to 2003.". This amendment attempts to award some protection to company directors, to the entity that is the company itself...

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (20 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: Subparagraph (viii) of the amendment holds more importance for me. In the event that personal data are stored within company records, the Data Protection Acts should take precedence over this legislation. That is the most important provision of the amendment. I would like clarification on that.

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (20 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I thank the Minister.

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (20 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I never said the Minister was not nice.

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (20 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I move amendment No. 12: In page 8, to delete lines 3 to 20 and substitute the following: "(2F) Where an extended power of seizure is exercised, it shall be the duty of the officer— (a) to carry out the determination or separation concerned as soon as practicable after its exercise, and in any event, within 3 months or such further period as is permitted by the Court, and (b) as respect...

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (20 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I thank the Minister for her offer of reflection and we look forward to the result of her deliberations.

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (20 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: We are about trying to strike a balance. We oppose the section and believe it would act as a major disincentive for people to get involved in entrepreneurial effort and a major disincentive for people to become directors of companies. The section, which amends section 40 of the Companies Act 1990, would appear to provide for directors to be held or deemed to have committed criminal offences...

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (20 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: However, if I were a director of a company with some 20 or 30 other co-directors, to hold me personally responsible for every action of every other director would place an unnecessary, unfair and unjust burden on me as a director. If that provision was in place and this section of the legislation was enacted, I would seriously question whether anybody would take the risk of being guilty by...

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (20 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: That is exactly the point. I ask the Tánaiste to assure the House that there is no possibility, under this legislation, of a director of a company who has no knowledge of the carrying out of an illegal act being implicated in the commission of that act. That is the issue. As far as I am concerned, the current wording of this provision - "if a company enters into a transaction or...

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (20 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I agree with what the Tánaiste has said about ignorance of the law, but ignorance of the facts surrounding a criminal act is a much different proposition.

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (20 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: It is the company that is in default.

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (20 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: On the basis of the Tánaiste's assurance that nobody can be found guilty by association or implication, I will agree to this section.

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (20 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I move amendment No. 16: In page 11, to delete lines 3 to 6. This leads us back up the same path. I do not know what our discussion over the past 15 or 20 minutes has achieved. It is there in black and white: "Where a company makes default in complying with this section, the company and every person who at the time of that default is a director of the company shall be guilty of an offence."...

Seanad: Order of Business (14 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: Yesterday, the Leader rightly raised the issue of the punitive fixed interest rates that still are being applied to thousands of families nationwide. Last week, his colleague, Senator Wilson, highlighted the issue of the treatment of one such family by a lending agency, which bordered on terrorism. I asked the question last week, and will continue to do so until Members get a debate on this...

Seanad: Order of Business (14 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: It is not trickling through to families that are suffering such levels of indebtedness. We learned from the Monageer report yesterday that one such family's level of indebtedness was a major factor in driving them to taking the sort of tragic action they did. Second, it most certainly is not trickling down to the businesses that need it. I argue that every cent that has been invested thus...

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Second Stage (6 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I welcome the Tánaiste to the House. It is the role of Opposition to forensically analyse the actions of Government and point out shortcomings in its performance. Our people place great faith in the Opposition's ability to carry out this role on their behalf. To retain real credibility in carrying out this duty it is important that those in opposition acknowledge and support a positive...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I also support the call of Senator Wilson for some financial control. We have invested billions of euro of taxpayers' money in the banking system. I do not wish to be crude about it, but we have effectively been given the two fingers by these people, who rode off into the sunset with our money. We have bought little or no influence in day-to-day banking policy. That is simply one example...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 May 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I refer to the matter of adoption. I have much respect, as does Senator Norris, for the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Barry Andrews. He has brought fresh thinking and enthusiasm to that Ministry. However, the energy and effort invested in the attempt to get the agreement with Vietnam re-established took place far too late. It began in earnest in March...