The Government was engaged in a fight to the death with "rotten apples" in corporate Ireland who had treated the rest of Irish society with contempt, said Mr Paschal Mooney (FF).
Speaking in the second stage debate on the Company Law Enforcement Bill, he said that like most people he was appalled at what had been unfolding at the tribunals and in other areas of our society. He had no doubt that a significant proportion of the votes cast against the Nice Treaty represented a protest against the culture we had been witnessing in this country.
We faced a real threat to traditional values of honesty and ethics in business, he said.
Mr Mooney stressed the need for company legislation to be underpinned by the necessary resources in terms of expertise in the Garda area, accountancy and the other paraphernalia needed to combat white-collar crime.
The Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Robert Molloy, said the criticism that had been highlighted in the House in a way ignored the fact that many steps had been taken by the Government to "clean up the act". "It's absolutely essential that we maintain the integrity of our business system," he said.
The second stage of the Bill was passed.