asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he is aware that members of the National Agricultural and Industrial Development Association in a company limited by guarantee and not having a share capital have been deprived of the control of the affairs of the company, under an alteration of the articles of association approved by him, and not in fact sanctioned by members; that the control of the National Agricultural and Industrial Development Association has, under the alteration of articles, passed into the hands of the Federation of Irish Manufacturers, Limited; and whether he is prepared, in view of the public interests affected, to cause an investigation into the affairs of this company under the Companies Acts.
Written Answers. - National Agricultural and Industrial Development Association.
The company, Cumann Naisiúnta Cuireadorachta agus Tionnsgal (The National Agricultural and Industrial Development Association), being a body of the kind referred to in sub-section (1) of Section 20 of the Companies (Consolidation) Act, 1908, was, on the 17th January, 1931, granted a licence by the Minister for Industry and Commerce enabling it to be registered with limited liability without the addition of the word "limited" to its name. As a condition of the granting of the licence the memorandum of the association was required to contain a clause that no alteration should be made in the articles of association without the previous approval of the Minister. On the 16th May, 1938, there was submitted to me by the association a special resolution, duly passed and confirmed in accordance with Section 69 of the Companies (Consolidation) Act, 1908. This resolution embodied proposed alterations in the association's articles, which are, it is assumed, the changes to which the Deputy refers. My approval of the proposed alterations was necessary only because the licence under Section 20 was subject to the condition contained in clause 5 of the memorandum. Being satisfied that the changes proposed in the articles did not in any way affect the conditions under which the licence had been granted, I duly approved thereof. My powers to inquire into the affairs of a limited company are defined in Section 109 of the Companies (Consolidation) Act, 1908, but the requirements of that section would have to be satisfied before I could consider any question of intervention.