Shane Ross (Independent)

I repeat a request I made to the Leader some weeks ago. It may have been touched on yesterday but I was not here and I apologise to the House if that is the case. I refer to the issue of financial regulation and corporate Ireland which, according to today's media, is in the dock for certain things which have been going on. It would be appropriate for us to debate not only financial regulation but the Companies Act which this House passed more than 15 years ago and in which insider dealing was made a criminal offence.

It should be noted that a case of insider dealing has never been successfully prosecuted in this country and that it is very rare for such a case to be taken. It is regrettable that the DCC-Fyffes case was left to the Supreme Court which made an unambiguous judgment that insider dealing had taken place and that dealings had taken place on the basis of inside information held by an individual. Nothing has been done about that, except that corporate Ireland has stood behind that behaviour. It is a very serious issue for us because either the law is not tight enough or this is not going on at all, although that is not what the Supreme Court found.

It would be appropriate if this House was to regard itself as relevant in matters of this sort. We should not debate only this specific issue. The DCC-Fyffes case is a landmark and is a disgrace for us internationally, as was raised by Senator Quinn recently. We should examine what is happening to the regulators and why they are nowhere to been seen in this extraordinary episode.