Seanad debates

Thursday, 29 May 2003

Companies (Auditing and Accountancy) Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages.

 

We work on the basis of a chain of command. Senator Quinn cited the example of a director who does not trust the chief executive. If there is not trust and confidence between senior management of a company and its board of directors the company is in serious trouble. We cannot arrange legislation to cope with that sort of situation. If I were a director and did not trust my chief executive I would do as Senator Quinn suggests and get an expert in. I would have the expert check everything the chief executive is doing. If I did not trust him to look after one aspect of his responsibilities I would not trust him to look after the others and I certainly would not have him in charge of the running of the company. I accept that Senator Quinn merely used this example as an illustration but it is one that does not give a fair reflection of the issue we are discussing. If we do not have trust and confidence in the people we are dealing with then we have a problem.

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