Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will respond first to Senator Barrett's remarks and thank him for his kind words of welcome. The costs of an examinership will depend not only on the capitalisation or book value of the assets of a company but also on the nature and extent of the company's liabilities and the complexity of a particular case. Hence, it would be extremely difficult to estimate the cost of a typical examinership on which to base annual estimates of savings. To draw robust estimates would require information from the individual companies who applied for Circuit Court examinership and require them to estimate the savings from choosing the Circuit Court option over the High Court route. This would be a hypothetical exercise and necessarily subjective. To compel companies to co-operate in such a process would require legislation, which would also add to the administrative burden on companies.

As the House may be aware, Standing Order 141A of the Dáil provides that 12 months after the enactment of a Bill, the Minister or Minister of State, who is officially responsible for implementation of an Act, shall provide a report, which shall review the functioning of the Act and which shall be laid in the Oireachtas Library. A report on the implementation of the Bill before the House today will be required 12 months after its enactment. Therefore, the amendment is not practical or necessary and I do not propose to accept it.

Other Senators spoke about the cost of legal services and the top four that Senator O'Donovan mentioned.