Seanad debates

Wednesday, 16 April 2003

Companies (Auditing and Accounting) Bill 2003: Second Stage.

 

We have had some discussion of the whole issue of limited liability, which is central to the argument about the threshold one uses for imposing auditing requirements and so on. I very much hold to the view that Senator O'Toole articulated. Limited liability is a privilege which includes, among other matters, effectively being able to walk away from one's debts in certain circumstances. We should require companies which receive that privilege to adhere to certain regulations. Business will always state regulation is somewhere between a pain in the neck and an anti-competitive measure and so on. They will say this. I would not expect them to say anything different. If I was involved in business, I would say it, too. However, there is a responsibility on those of us who, in a sense, put the regulations in place to, first, explain the reason they are necessary and we are making them – we so often do not do this – and then ensure they are reasonable and can be easily complied with. Regulation, if it has a good reason and is put in place in a fashion which makes sense, is important. I certainly support the sort of regulation which the Bill looks to put in place.

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