Amendments Nos. 69 and 70 are related to amendment No. 53 and all can be discussed together by agreement.
SECTION 36.
I move amendment No. 53:
In page 46, subsection (5), line 16, to delete "alleged offender" and substitute "officer, employee, shareholder or agent of the approved stock exchange or authorised member firm or associated undertaking or related undertaking".
Is this just redefining "alleged offender" to include officer, employee, shareholder or agent?
Amendments Nos. 53, 69 and 70 are drafting amendments. They do not provide for an offence and, you cannot have an alleged offender without an offence. The amendments substitute the appropriate references to officers, shareholders and so on.
Amendment agreed to.
I move amendment No. 54:
In page 46, between lines 23 and 24, to insert the following subsection:
"(6) The expenses of and incidental to an examination under this section may be paid in the first instance by the Bank.".
This is a technical amendment which will allow a person appointed to carry out a second audit of a stock exchange or member firm, and to be paid by the Central Bank. The person will therefore be an employee of the bank and will, as a result, be bound by the confidentiality provisions of the Central Bank Act, 1989.
It is to bind the person appointed?
Yes.
It says that the costs will be borne by the Central Bank. Can those costs be transferred in the finding stage to the company that might be investigated. Is there an opportunity to do that?
Yes, there is a provision that that can be done rather than having the Central Bank, the taxpayer, paying.
So it is only in the first instance, to speed it up, but it would be pursued beyond that?
Yes, it can be transferred as a financial imposition on the offending company.
Amendment agreed to.
Section 36, as amended, agreed to.