Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 December 2018
297. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation if the full ODCE report into the collapse of the trial of a person (details supplied) will be published; and if consideration has been given to publishing the report if legislation pertaining to same was changed. [52826/18]
View answerThe advice of the Attorney General was sought on publication of the Report of the Director of Corporate Enforcement prepared under section 955(1)(a) of the Companies Act 2014.
Because of section 956 of the Companies Act 2014 I, as Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, am prohibited from publishing reports prepared pursuant to Section 955 of the Act.
The Companies Act 2014 contains strict confidentiality obligations on information in the possession of the Director. There is a public interest in ensuring that ongoing and future investigations are not compromised by the disclosure of details of an individual investigation and the investigative process itself.
However, while it is not possible to publish the report itself, the account of the investigative shortcomings identified by Judge Aylmer was published on 4 December 2018 on the website of my Department. The purpose of publishing the account is to understand the factors that led to such investigative shortcomings and to take appropriate steps to address them.
These steps include ongoing reform within the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, including the establishment, as announced by Government in November 2017, of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement as an agency, to provide it with greater autonomy in relation to staffing resources and ensure it is better equipped to investigate increasingly complex breaches of company law.
On 4 December 2018 Government approved the publication of the draft legislation to establish the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement as a stand-alone agency to be called the Corporate Enforcement Authority. Section 955 was considered in the drafting process and the General Scheme of the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018 contains a new provision to replace the current section 955. Ultimately, it will be a matter for the Oireachtas to consider the legislation in this regard.
