Dáil Éireann Debate, Friday - 7 September 2018
550. Deputy Maurice Quinlivan asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the number of prosecutions initiated and convictions, director disqualifications and director restrictions secured, respectively, by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement to date in 2018, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36636/18]
View answerThe figures to date (4 September) for 2018 are set out in tabular form below:
|
No. of prosecutions initiated |
Number of convictions |
No. of Director Disqualifications |
No. of Director Restrictions |
|
1 |
2 |
9 (1 by Disqualification Undertaking; 8 by Court Orders) |
78 (61 by Restriction Undertakings; 17 by Court Orders) |
The ODCE also exercised its right to make certain compliance applications to the High Court under Section 371 of the Companies Act 1963, now Section 797 of the Companies Act 2014, to secure compliance with Orders sought.
However, it should be borne in mind that, working within the context of a rectification policy, many issues can be addressed by exercise of powers without the necessity of bringing issues to the Courts for determination, for example: production of registers; directing the holding of Annual General Meetings; production of minutes of meetings; and regularising breaches of the director loan provisions which, in 2017, secured the rectification on a non-statutory basis, of suspected infringements of the Companies Act 2014, in relation to Directors’ loans in 39 cases, to an aggregate value of €15.5m approximately.
The ODCE took a decision in recent years to concentrate its resources on more serious and complex investigations, the result of which is usually the submission of a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for consideration, as opposed to a summary prosecution.
In terms of prosecutions, the Director of Corporate Enforcement is only statutorily empowered to initiate summary prosecutions (i.e. prosecutions of relatively minor offences in the District Court).
More serious alleged breaches of company law are prosecuted on indictment in the Circuit Court and only the Director of Public Prosecutions (“DPP”) can direct that charges be preferred on indictment.
Furthermore, since June 2015, company directors facing restriction or disqualification proceedings before the Courts, can avoid Court proceedings by voluntarily agreeing to be restricted or disqualified for certain periods. This provision ensures that company directors, who are considered to be in breach of the Companies Act 2014 and facing restriction or disqualification proceedings, are dealt with in an efficient and effective administrative manner without the need for the involvement of the Courts.
