Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State and wish him well with his new responsibilities. I have no doubt he will deal with all matters comprehensively and competently. I welcome the contents of this Bill but will comment on what it should also have contained. Like Senators Norris, Ryan and Cannon, everyone on this side of the House welcome this measure in light of recent developments.

There have been so many furtive transfers and dealings which were deliberately kept under the radar that the matter had to be addressed. There is no place in Irish company life for the dubious activities we have witnessed recently. It does not reflect any credit on Irish society that some directors of companies - in some instances, very large companies - ran them as if they were personal fiefdoms without any regard for the law or the fact a company is a separate body in law. For that reason, as well as the manner in which share registers were maintained in some instances, I very much welcome the Bill. I hope the Director of Corporate Enforcement will be able to be strict in regard to the manner in which the new register of directors' loans is kept to ensure it is kept in a satisfactory manner.

I agree very much with the remarks of Senator O'Toole who spoke about light touch regulation which we realise does not work. He chaired the audit review group and spoke about directors' compliance statements. I agree with what he said about that issue. All material matters must be included. He also spoke about the company law review group about which I will speak in a minute.

I tabled a Private Members' Bill, the Credit Institutions (Financial Support) (Amendment) Bill 2009. Under current law, the ability of the Director of Corporate Enforcement is being impeded. How does he deal with an entity which is not a company? That is why we tabled this Private Members' Bill which, I accept, was done in a rush. It may not be adequate but it would be very acceptable to us if it was taken and improved. If not, we believe we must table an amendment to this Bill on Committee Stage to cover that point.

The Tánaiste indicated her intention to bring forward this legislation amending the Companies Acts to increase the powers of the Director of Corporate Enforcement which we very much welcome in regard to transparency, loans to directors and powers to enforce compliance. However, I do not believe these promised measures go far enough in that they prevent the director from investigating building societies or credit unions. While there has been an indication of an intention to close this loophole, we believe strongly this cannot wait for another day because very often legislation is not brought into the House quickly. I look forward to the Minister of State's comments on this. Once this Bill is passed and if this issue is not dealt with, perhaps it will be allowed to rest.

We are all aware of the very disturbing allegations about Anglo Irish Bank, Irish Life & Permanent and Irish Nationwide, which is a building society. The Director of Corporate Enforcement is currently actively engaged in Anglo Irish Bank but is prevented from doing cross-checking because he cannot go near Irish Nationwide in regard to those loan transfers which were deliberately kept under the radar. There is no excuse for such a large section of the financial sector to be excluded from investigation when such a prima facie case exists, as at present. For that reason we are most anxious that this anomalous position be dealt with quickly.

In passing, I compliment the Oireachtas Library & Research Service on its wonderful work on the Bills Digest on this item of intended law, published yesterday, which Members have probably seen. Page two of the document refers to the working group on Company Law Compliance and Enforcement under the chairmanship of Michael McDowell, Senior Counsel, a former Minister. The working group found that compliance with company regulation was generally low, which is another reason we need this measure. I found this document informative. I hope to digest it further before Committee Stage. I found the requirement of corporate compliance outlined in the document interesting. I wish to refer specifically to another part of the document, which I thought I had marked but I must not have done so.