Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State. I also welcome his comments in introducing the Bill and his emphasis on the Deloitte & Touche report. He referred to making Dublin a major European centre and a world class location, which are phrases I like.

I refer to a procedural issue. Yesterday we debated legislation intended to tidy up the Statute Book to make it easily accessible. However, this is not helped by the introduction of a portmanteau Bill, which deals with a number of different subjects in one package. While I can understand why, the legislation deals with two issues: new investment fund products and amendments to company law. However, they deserve to be addressed in separate Bills. The Minister of State may say they were put together because of the pressure on parliamentary time but such pressure is totally artificial, as it is caused by the scandalously low number of days the Oireachtas sits annually.

The first part of the Bill addresses the latest chapter in the ongoing success story of the IFSC, which is one of the jewels of the Celtic tiger, as Senator White said. Credit should be given to Dermot Desmond and C. J. Haughey, who grabbed hold of the idea when Dermot Desmond put it to him, more than 20 years ago.