I propose the establishment of a National Authority, which will be a security and guarantee to the persons known as small investors.
It will be a guarantee, as far as is humanly possible, that when the small investor puts his or her money into any concern, that those savings will be safe and secure.
The Members of the Dáil and the Irish public will know from past experience the necessity for such an authority as this. In the past, every small investor—and people indeed who were not small investors—were the prey of any schemer who came along with any scheme designed on paper to make prodigious profits, but designed in reality to take your money. Many of these schemes looked very attractive and very beautiful, and were advertised largely and circulated broadcast.
My intention is to establish such an authority that none of these people can collect money without the permission and imprimatur of that authority. We are starting now what is a new order in Ireland, and one of the first duties of the national Government is to secure that thrifty people shall not be deprived of their savings by any kind of schemer or any kind of society, or group of individuals. My proposal is to establish an authority who will be a Supervisory Registrar, who will register and approve of every Society which is collecting the savings of thrifty people, to encourage thriftiness and discountenance improvidence, to ensure that thrifty people shall get, or their children shall get, the benefits of their thrift and sacrifices.
Every Society that is in a good condition will welcome this. It is only the society or the individual who is not in a sound condition will be afraid of this proposal. The sound societies have everything to gain, because they will have national sanction for their activities. They will have the seal of the national authority that they are sound and are able to meet their liabilities. That is the greatest advertisement they can get. This office will deal with every society whether it is a building society, an insurance society, or a financial society which collects funds from the Irish people, and which will have to be run in the future in accordance with the details laid down by this new authority.
I want to say that it is not intended, and it must not occur, that any one of our authorities or departments set up in this manner will simply be a busybody department or authority. We have had too much of that from the other Government.
This authority will work entirely in the interests of the public, and will always be a national authority responsible to the Dáil, and, through the Dail, to the public.
I formally put this proposal before you.
