Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the committee for facilitating the passage of this statutory instrument. In preparation for the commencement on 1 June 2015 of the Companies Act 2014, a number of statutory instruments are to be issued to deal with functional issues related to the operation of the Act. The statutory instrument before us is one which requires positive approval by the Oireachtas. It concerns the application of certain aspects of company law to unregistered companies, specifically the Bank of Ireland. None of these provisions is new and the purpose of the statutory instrument is to maintain the status quo.

Company law applies to companies which are formed and registered under the Companies Act. However, unregistered companies still exist and the Bank of Ireland is the main unregistered company in Ireland, having been formed under a royal charter in 1783. Notwithstanding its unregistered status, the Bank of Ireland must still comply with company law. As a result, there has always been a provision in company law to allow specific provisions to be applied to the bank. In the Companies Act 2014, this is achieved by way of maintaining all law relating to unregistered companies in a single Part, which is supplemented by a table contained in the Schedules. Section 1313 of the Act is the relevant provision. It provides that the table in Schedule 14 may be extended to include any relevant provision in the rest of the Act. The statutory instrument before us applies the provisions listed in Article 4 to the Bank of Ireland.

If Members wish, I will go through each article and the various provisions being applied line by line. It is important to note, however, that the provisions before us do not do anything new. They are standard provisions related to accounting, the treatment of securities and so forth.