Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I apologise to the Minister for my late arrival. The reason is mundane – the train from Cork was an hour late for the first time in about five years. I am sure the Minister did not miss me and no discourtesy was intended in any case.

I agree with Senator Quinn. However, a number of issues need to be addressed, the first of which is the one he has raised. The second is the value of the proprietary interest in any business. Given the nature of the dot com business, the value of a company can shoot up and down quite rapidly. I am concerned that €20,000 is a fairly substantial interest below which no declaration is needed. I suggest that even a shelf company which could become a beneficiary is a sufficiently serious matter to require a declaration of interest. I will return to other issues later on the section.

In my view, to require a declaration of interest only where a member of the company has an interest to the value of €20,000 or more is exceedingly generous. If people are getting involved in something of this nature, the spirit of the legislation should be that they stay away from any businesses which would benefit from its activities. The letter of the law might be more difficult but it should state that the value of their involvement must be close to nominal. Currently there is a debate as to whether €4,000 is a nominal or significant sum of money but I am quite satisfied that €20,000 is a very significant sum of money. Indeed, I regard €1,000 as a significant sum and I am not happy that €20,000 should be the limit below which an interest need not be declared.