Ciarán Cannon (Progressive Democrats)

By her own admission the Tánaiste is highlighting the urgency of this legislation. It is urgent because it serves to give the Director of Corporate Enforcement the powers he needs to police rogue directors and to engender real confidence in the public that we are tackling this issue head on. Is there any mechanism whereby within this legislation we can uniformly apply that new fine across all sections for ease of application and, as Senators O'Toole and Twomey said, to send out a strong, clear and unequivocal signal to the public that we are taking this issue seriously? This is urgent legislation. If it were not, we would not be here but would wait for it to come in a year's time. The urgency attaching to this legislation requires that the penalties it provides for are appropriate and serve as a sufficient deterrent to stamp out the kind of activity we have seen in recent years.