Joe Costello
Question:24 Mr. Costello asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she will make a statement on the recent report of the Director of Corporate Enforcement. [18046/04]
View answerThursday, 17 June 2004
Questions (26)
Written answers
I presume that the Deputy is referring to the director of corporate enforcement's annual report for 2003. Some of its highlights include the following: there were just under 1,500 reports made to his office of the by auditors suggesting the commission of indictable company law offences by companies and directors, in particular, a four-fold increase over the number of such reports made in 2002; his office received 300 complaints from the public on suspected corporate misconduct; his office secured 43 convictions, or a three-fold increase over 2002, against companies and individuals; there were 651 reports by liquidators on insolvent companies pursuant to the Company Law Enforcement Act 2001 and the director imposed an obligation on the liquidator in 202 cases to apply to the High Court to restrict all of the directors of the insolvent company; 153 directors were restricted by the High Court in the 121 cases heard by it in 2003; and 14 High Court orders were secured by the office against nine liquidators to remedy a failure by each liquidator to submit an insolvent company report.
In addition the office continued to pursue an active information and awareness campaign. This included the completion of the dissemination to 150,000 Irish registered companies of ODCE information books on the duties and powers of companies, company directors and company secretaries.
The 2003 annual report indicated a significant increase in the number of reports and complaints of suspected corporate misconduct reported to the office in 2003 compared to 2002. However, it would not be correct to draw any inference from this that there was an increase in corporate misconduct. Last year was only the second full year of operation for the office. As its existence becomes better known and the reporting obligations under the Company Law Enforcement Act 2001 are acted upon the level of reporting of misconduct will increase in the short term.
It is probably too early to assess the full impact of the regime introduced by the Company Law Enforcement Act 2001. I am satisfied, having regard to the outcome for 2003 reported by the director, that the increased activity and detection of offences shows that the law and his office is working well.