Rabbitte meets brokers today

THE Minister of State for Commerce, Science and Technology, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said he would like to see more "pro active monitoring" of investment intermediaries.

The Department of Enterprise and Employment learned of the Taylor controversy from an English regulatory body and not the Irish Brokers Association (IBA), which may have been acting on legal advice, the minister said.

The IBA reacted last night saying it had always acted swiftly. The first complaint, it said, was received on July 18th and the second a week later.

The two complainants were "in their own interest strongly advised to bring the matter to the immediate attention of the Department of Enterprise and Employment, the supervisory authority in this area" according to the brokers. "It is understood", IBA continued, that they declined this advice and this was confirmed by Mr Rabbitte.

An authorised officer from the department visited the IBA offices in an effort to discover information relating to complaints from clients of Mr Taylor's other than those about whom the department was already aware.

Mr Rabbitte is to meet with the IBA today to discuss matters arising from the disappearance of Dublin investor Mr Tony Taylor. He was committed to a "root and branch review" of the sector.

The minister, speaking on RTE's This Week programme, said he did not know if the investors whose funds were missing would get their money back. It was "unclear" whether any emergency fund or negligence cover was in place which would cover the affected investors.

The Department of Enterprise and Employment, he said, had acted with great speed since the matter had first come to their attention, on July the 25th.

The department had learned about it when the London regulatory authority "blew the whistle," following contact with them by a husband and wife who had invested with Mr Taylor.

"At no stage up to the present day has any investor involved in this unfortunate controversy made a complaint to the department," he said.

The Minister said he did not know the whereabouts of Mr Taylor. "We do know that he misled the authorised officer into believing that he would co operate fully. We do know that he has not made himself amenable to the investigation and we do know that he communicated with his staff through his solicitor and that he is, quote, `lying low for a period'."

It was known that £706,000 given to Mr Taylor by personal clients is unaccounted for. This figure could be greater.

"As these personal clients have not yet come forward or have not yet been interviewed, then we don't know the extent of it."

A further £844,000 was known to have been in accounts which were "obliterated" by Mr Taylor prior to the authorising officer visiting Taylor's office.