Corporate fraud would be tackled and perpetrators brought to justice, according to the Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce, Mr Smith. He told an Institute of Directors seminar in Dublin that directors of only a third of companies required to file annual returns last year had done so. "This is a disturbing statistic which, if it generally applied in our economy, would suggest a near anarchic disregard of the provisions of the Companies Acts by company directors," he said.

In a comment on auditors, he said that the 1996 Companies Report showed that only four notifications were made to the Registrar of Companies that proper books of account were not being kept by companies, a number he found "somewhat surprising" out of the tens of thousands of registered companies.

He said that he hoped the institute would support the Government in rooting out abuses and he warned directors to put their companies in order.

Good internal procedures were required to deter and detect fraud, along with proper codes of conduct to report the fraud, he said.

Good enforcement procedures were also required and there had been a lack of resources assigned by successive governments to the Companies Registration Office. "The Government is committed to making additional staffing resources available to bring the present staff complement of about 80 up to 120 and new upgraded computer systems are in the process of being developed at a cost of about £1.2 million," he said.

Legislative reform of a complex body of law was also taking place "to keep pace with the increasing sophistication of today's commercial world". He warned that when the new computer system was operating early next year there would be "a very vigorous round of company strike-offs and prosecutions.

"As company directors will be included personally in the prosecution regime, they would be wise to start now to put their many houses in order," he said.

He said the McCracken Report had heightened awareness of the corporate fraud issue. Companies named in that report would be investigated to see the extent of their breaches of the Companies Acts. Company directors or auditors would be pursued if there was evidence of offences.

"It is the duty of professionals to comply with the law, no matter how unacceptable or inconvenient it may be to their clients," he said.