SEANAD REPORT:SHANE ROSS (Ind) said he believed that financial regulation in this country was in a state of chaos. The high-profile cases showed an inconsistency that was quite alarming.
"The House will be aware that there was a lot of rumpus about dealings in certain stocks, and the Financial Regulator came in rather late to supposedly investigate those dealings. At the same time, it seems there is no consistency in what is going on.
"A couple of weeks ago, The Irish Times, and Phoenixmagazine a little before that, were both fined - one, I think €10,000 and the other €5,000 - by the Financial Regulator for what appeared to be reasonably small offences.
"At the same time as these particular offences were being punished with a great deal of fanfare and publicity, certainly orchestrated by the Financial Regulator, there was a case in Dublin which was finalised on Monday - the DCC versus Fyffes case where nobody has done anything at all to attempt to remedy what happened there.
"That was a very serious case - and a much more serious case than what's been happening to T he Irish Timesand Phoenixmagazine - where there was a finding of insider dealing by the Supreme Court, and where none of the institutions which were supposed to regulate the goings-on on in the Stock Exchange and in financial dealings did anything or has done anything so far."
Mr Ross said he was referring specifically to institutions such as the Irish Association of Investment Managers. As far as he knew, Ibec had said absolutely nothing about the matter.
The Stock Exchange and the Financial Regulator itself had allowed a situation to develop whereby Ireland's regulation was a "laughing stock".
Senator Feargal Quinn had voiced concerns about this some time ago. It would not happen in any other financial centre in the world that one of the largest companies in the State could make money out of what the Supreme Court had found to be insider dealing and yet nothing happened.
Paul Coghlan (FG) said it would appear that the concept of corporate governance and the strictures of company law had been given "the two fingers" by some leading players in Irish corporate life.