The Law Reform Commission is calling for the establishment of a new Corporate Crime Agency to be set up.

The new organisation would be modeled on the Criminal Assets Bureau, and would target white collar crime.

The call is included in the commission’s Report on Regulatory Powers and Corporate Offences, which was published last night.

It recommends the establishment of a dedicated unit in the office of the DPP to liaise with the new Agency, and warns that the new agency will need to be properly resourced so it can be effective in fighting corporate crime.

The Law Reform Commission (LRC) said the banking and financial crisis highlighted the need for “fundamental legal reforms.”

It said the crisis underlined the need for regulators to have “sufficiently robust and comprehensive powers to discharge their functions effectively.”

It also said the law should be examined to ensure that it can “reflect the reality of modern-day corporate decision-making” and respond to what the former Governor of the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan, described in 2015 as "egregiously reckless risk-taking.”

It said significant policy changes and reforms have already been made at a national and EU level in response to the crisis – with a number of significant convictions in recent years relating to the actions of senior bank executives in the run-up to the crash.

However, it puts forward 200 recommendations for further reform of regulatory powers and corporate offences.