Gerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I do not believe there is a political will to deal with it. I say that because of the delay in the conclusion of this report. We have seen very little product in this area and in the whole area of employment rights over the past year or so. It is not as if it is a case that there are not any issues to address. There are myriad of issues to be addressed but I do not believe they will be addressed any time soon. I hope, however, I can stand up in the House and correct myself at some point in the not-too-distant future. However, we will wait and see.

This is not a case of rushed legislation or concerns about unintended consequences. Proposals of this nature have been distributed around system since the Clerys situation first emerged. It is not a case of rushed legislation but of no or very little legislation that will protect working people and small businesses, as well as ensuring our business culture manages to progress and we do not have situations like this in the future. This is a genuine attempt to make our company law more robust to protect everybody and improve our business culture.

We know from the Minister and our own experience that section 599 has not been tested. When it is a case that provisions in legislation go untested for 27 years, then we must ask why. Clearly, there are some who would have considered it over the years, but there might have been considerable obstacles to creditors and liquidators taking the case. I was disappointed that the Department of Social Protection as a creditor - one could argue the lead creditor - in the Clerys situation decided not to test section 599 and to go after the related assets. The State, one could argue, is owed over €2 million because of redundancy payments paid out of the statutory redundancy fund to those entitled to it in Clerys.

If the Minister is not prepared to accept the amendment, give a date for the receipt of the CLRG report and legislation emerging from that, will she have direct formal conversations with her colleague, the Minister for Social Protection, with a view to taking a case under section 599 to test the robustness, or otherwise, of the legislation? It is quite telling that after 27 years of the existence of this legislation, not a single case has been taken.