The Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, is seeking legal advice as to whether she should seek to have Bula Resources plc prosecuted for failing to keep proper registers of directors' interests and significant shareholders.

Advice is being sought from the Chief State Solicitor's office in relation to the matter. The summary prosecution would be sought under the provisions of the Companies Acts.

Following the publication of a report by an inspector, the barrister Mr Lyndon MacCann, in July, Ms Harney sought the views of Bula and the Stock Exchange in relation to the contents of the report. It is understood that no major sanction of Bula is being considered by the Stock Exchange.

Mr MacCann reported in July on the ownership of some 101 million Bula shares, which had been transferred to a British Virgin Islands company, Mir Oil Development Ltd, as part of a deal organised by Bula's then chairman and chief executive, Mr Jim Stanley. Mr MacCann found that Mir was owned by Mr Stanley.

In his report, Mr MacCann said Bula had not kept proper registers of directors' interests and shares, or of significant shareholdings. Ms Harney expressed concern about this at the time of the publication of the report and it is understood that it is the possibility of a prosecution on this point that is being examined.

At a company annual general meeting the day after the report's publication, Mr Ivan Walpole, finance director with Bula, said the company had kept the registers. Historically they had been kept in written form and more recently in computer form, he said.