Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 35:

In page 58, between lines 17 and 18, to insert the following:

“Amendment of section 633 of Principal Act

91. Section 633 of the Principal Act is amended by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (4):“(4) In this section—

‘liquidator’ includes provisional liquidator;

‘prescribed fee’ means a fee prescribed by regulations made by the Supervisory Authority with the consent of the Minister;

‘prescribed form’ means a form prescribed by regulations made by the Supervisory Authority.”.”.

Amendment No. 35 addresses a technical issue with section 633 of the Companies Act 2014. Section 633 introduced requirements for qualification to act as a liquidator. As a result, members of certain professional bodies such as accountants and solicitors who meet other criteria can be appointed as liquidators. It is also possible for people with practical experience of wind-ups and knowledge of the relevant law to apply to the Irish Auditing and Accountancy Survey Authority, IAASA, for authorisation to act as liquidators.

Section 633 also provides that anyone in this category who wants to apply to the IAASA must do so on a prescribed form and pay a prescribed fee. However, the word "prescribed" has a specific definition for Part 2 of the Act and section 633 is in the Part. As a result, the forms and fees in section 633 should be prescribed by the rules of court. That is not appropriate for an administrative scheme of this nature and was not intended. Amendment No. 35, therefore, clarifies that the forms will be presented by the IAASA and the accompanying fees that will be set with the consent of the Minister.