Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I second the amendment. I have a real difficulty with the compliance statement for a number of reasons. I would like to give the Minister of State what I regard as practical advice. If we want to make it more possible for people to stay within the law, I would like to find a way to overcome this issue. Yesterday, Senator O'Toole spoke about the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, in the United States and about the controls it had put in place. As far as I can determine, these were financial controls which did not pertain to matters such as employment, health, the environment and safety. My difficulty is that we are breaking new ground without having considered the matter fully. I know of no other country doing something similar. Senator O'Toole may be able to confirm this.

The Bill states that non-executive directors should sign a statement of compliance, which sounded very reasonable when Senator O'Toole spoke about it yesterday. He spoke about the new section 205E(2), which states: