Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Nobody is arguing with the basic thrust of this section. However, it seems it would be a lot easier if the judgment were made by an individual such as the Ombudsman, secretary to the Government or another person or body who would be in a position to make an objective judgment. Under section 16(6) the Minister can deal severely with somebody where he comes to the conclusion that he or she contravened these sections on disclosure. A person could have legitimately concluded that under section 16(3) there was no reason to do anything about it and the Minister could come to a different conclusion under section 16(6) and deal severely with a person who made a mistake.

It would be more useful to have an objective independent way of making a judgment on this. We will have a situation whereby various State agencies have different interpretations of this and contradictory positions. I offer this helpfully for future consideration. I will not make a major fuss about it. However, I believe it is ambiguous.

What is the significance of section 16(8)? I do not carry the Companies Act in my head. I gather the non-application of section 194 of that Act must have significance.