Vol. 76 No. 4
I move:
That the Alliance and Dublin Consumers' Gas Company (General Meeting) Order, 1973, proposed to be made by the Minister for Transport and Power and laid in draft before Seanad Éireann on the 23rd day of October, 1973 under Subsection 4 of Section 10 of the Gas Regulation Act, 1920, be approved.
Gas undertakings generally operate under special Acts which authorise them to manufacture and distribute gas in certain specified areas. Modifications to the special Acts required by the undertakings from time to time are made under section 10 of the Gas Regulation Act, 1920, which enables me to make by order the required modifications. Before an order of this kind is made it has to be laid in draft before both Houses of the Oireachtas. The Houses of the Oireachtas may, by resolution, approve the draft order in the form submitted or may approve it with modifications and additions. When such approval is given I may make the order in the form in which it has been approved.
In 1950 an order entitled Alliance and Dublin Consumers' Gas Company (General Meetings) Order, 1950, was made on the application of the company, which provided that the ordinary general meeting would be held annually instead of half yearly, and as soon after 31st December of the preceding year but not later than the month of March as the directors by resolution from time to time determined.
The company feel that this regulation does not allow adequate time for the preparation, audit and distribution of the annual accounts prior to the annual meeting. They therefore proposed to me that I should make a special order under section 10 of the Gas Regulation Act, 1920, which would allow them to hold the ordinary general meeting at a time to be determined by the directors but not later than 15 months after the previous ordinary general meeting. As the proposed order would not be in conflict with the provisions of the Companies Act, 1963, and, following consultation with the Minister for Industry and Commerce, I agreed to the proposal. The order now laid in draft before the Seanad for approval will give the company the necessary authority to fix the date of the ordinary general meeting with the degree of latitude which they require.
The statutory requirements in regard to publicity have been complied with. Copies of the draft order were sent to the public and local authorities concerned. No objection to the proposed order was received.
I am satisfied as to the need for the order and that there is nothing in it repugnant to the public interest. I, therefore, recommend the order for the approval of the Seanad. The order has already been approved by Dáil Éireann.
I do not wish to delay the House but I should like to register a mild objection to this. I bear in mind what the Minister said—that there has been no objection from any other quarter and that the proposed order falls within the provisions of the Companies Act—but I must on principle make plain my disappointment with the regulation which if not necessarily decreasing the amount of information being made available to the public certainly makes the workings of a large enterprise such as the Gas Company a step or half step more remote from the public than they are at present.
I believe that any well organised enterprise should be able to carry out its business in the form in which the Gas Company were supposed to be carrying it out under the previous state of affairs, and to have to bring in an order like this casts some reflection on the standard of administration in the enterprise concerned.
I should like to make a comment here. What is proposed here for the Alliance and Dublin Consumers' Gas Company is that the ordinary law of companies with regard to this matter should apply to them.
That is correct. There seems to be some misunderstanding on Senator Horgan's part. There is no change at all in what they must do. All they want is extra time. Under the existing order they must produce their audited accounts before 31st March, that is, three months after the end of their year. Now they are being given permission to extend that, within the calendar year, to 15 months after preview. They must still comply with all the regulations of the Companies Act. They are just being given extra time to prepare their books.
