It is "virtually impossible" to say how many non-resident Irish-registered companies are set up in the State, the Minister of State for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr Noel Treacy, told the Dail yesterday.
Mr Treacy told Mr Pat Rabbitte (DL Dublin South West) that legislation to regulate non-resident Irish companies and force disclosure of directors was extremely complex. While the Government was at present working on the legislation and was determined to address any issues raised by these companies' activities, he could not say when such legislation would be brought before the Dail.
Pressed by the Fine Gael deputy leader, Mrs Nora Owen (Dublin North), as to whether it was possible to establish the number of non-resident companies, Mr Treacy said he did not "have a de facto number, but I hope to have a number for it eventually . . ."
On a suggestion from Mr Tommy Broughan (Labour, Dublin North East), that Ireland's reputation around the world was being "tainted by association with Jersey or Guernsey", Mr Treacy said: "We have information that on the island of Sark there are some 575 people and some of them have 3,000 directorships each. We have no hard information like that pertaining to here."
However, the Minister said he was "aware of the position internationally, aware of the situation here and . . . had been focused on the situation. We want to get it right, it is important to get it right and with the wisdom of this House, it will be right," he said.
Options being looked at present included asking the company formation agents what role they could play, and asking for the country of residence of directors of non-resident Irish companies, the Minister added.