David Norris (Independent)

I thank my colleague, Senator Coghlan, for yielding to me. I welcome the Bill which is appropriate and timely. It brings us into the computer age and takes into account all the outflow of these terrible financial scandals but it is a bit late in the day. It is a pity we did not wake up earlier and act in this regard previously, in particular in respect of this shameful business of loans. Much of this comes after the Anglo Irish Bank debacle.

I was a director of a number of companies but never took anything out of them even though they were commercially successful. I had loans but the loans in which I was involved were ones I made to keep the companies afloat. I eventually got them back. It is quite extraordinary that there is a complete lack of regulation and that people are allowed to launder loans by taking them off the books for a period of time to conceal them. That is very close to fraud and is a very dangerous practice. I hope this Bill will seal that off.

I am glad there is a possibility of investigating officers, acting on behalf of the regulator, to go into organisations. It is a certain invasion of legal protections in terms of privilege between professional persons and clients but, in these circumstances, it is necessary.

One thing which is not really addressed in the Bill is the bonuses paid to directors and senior personnel. These must be made legally performance related. It is completely absurd to reward people for failure, which happens. On the front page of The Irish Times today there is an article about investors wanting a say on the pay of Irish firms' top executives. In Britain, resolutions on executive pay are quite normal but in this country, they seem not to be.

I find it astonishing that a Bank of Ireland spokesman can say it is covered by the general report. There is only one vote on it so one must vote against the entire series of accounts or leave any question of inappropriate remuneration out of the game. That should be addressed.

This is an important Bill which is too late, although it may prevent things from happening in the future. It is quite wrong for people to milk their own companies. This is especially scandalous when they are building societies because they started off as mutual societies for the benefit of people but turned into kind of casinos operated in the interests of some of the principals involved. That is quite wrong. Again, I thank Senator Coghlan for facilitating me.