David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I note a report in The Irish Timesthis morning that refers to a finding of the Law Reform Commission, LRC. It has called for a new, properly-resourced white-collar crime agency to work in close conjunction with the new white-collar or corporate crime agency in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. The LRC is also calling for regulators to be able to fine and impose sanctions upon companies.

The former Governor of the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan, pointed out that criminal convictions - and there have been some for white-collar crime - were not related directly to the question of reckless trading.He said that, like many commonsense people, he had assumed that reckless trading was a criminal offence and should be prosecuted. However, he was told by the responsible authorities to dream on and that there was not sufficient case law for this to be sustained. This is nonsense. It shows the utter laziness and dereliction of duty of the prosecution service. What do they mean that there is not enough case law? There will never be enough case law until they start bringing cases.

I was chairman and managing director of two companies that were formed for charitable purposes but were registered as limited companies. I closed one of them down for a period because I was afraid of being charged with reckless trading. There is an offence of reckless trading. In my opinion, particularly in the wake of the financial crisis, this should be prosecuted and it is just not good enough to say that there is not enough case law. Case law must be build up and it is about time the authorities got their act together and did so. I also agree completely with the suggestions of the Law Reform Commission that this special agency should be created and that regulators should have the opportunity to impose financial and other regulations.