QUESTIONS have been raised as to why a warning "whistle" did not go off in the Department of Enterprise and Employment when Taylor Investments failed to file annual returns with the Companies Office.

Fianna Fail's deputy leader, Ms Mary O'Rourke, yesterday demanded an explanation for the Department's failure to notice malpractice, even though the auditor provisions had been breached and two companies in the Taylor Group had been struck off by the Companies Office.

She also claimed that if all sections of the Investment Intermediaries Act had been in force, investors involved with the Taylor Group might have been able to receive compensation.

"It is time now to either go back to the drawing board and produce a fresh Bill or else make amendments to the present Act." Ms O Rourke said.

Under Sections 8 and 9 of the Act, the Department of Enterprise and Employment and the Central Bank appeared to have power to decide the fitness to practise of brokers, she said. Another section specified the conditions that brokers must meet before they could be authorised.

"If the Department has this authorising power, how did it allow Taylor Group to function?"

Ms O'Rourke also asked why the authorised officer of the Department met Mr Tony Taylor at the auditor's office rather than at the notified address of the Taylor Group.

Ms O'Rourke has written to Mr Michael Bell, chairman of the Enterprise and Economic Strategy Committee, asking that the body produce an interim report on the facts surrounding the Taylor affair.

All the "main players" including the Irish Brokers' Association, the Ministers for Finance and Enterprise and Employment, Fidelity Investments and the British regulatory bodies should give evidence, she added.