Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and committee members for the invitation to discuss the general scheme of the companies (corporate enforcement authority) Bill 2018. I am joined by my officials, Nina Brennan, principal officer, who is on the line and will help me out with any hard questions, and Orla O’Brien, assistant principal, from the office as well.

By way of background, this legislation was proposed in the previous Government's plan to enhance Ireland’s corporate, economic and regulatory framework, which was published back in 2017. The general scheme was developed by my Department and published in 2018. Pre-legislative scrutiny commenced in early 2019 but was not completed because of the dissolution of the Dáil. In the meantime, my Department worked with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel on drafting the general scheme in consultation with the director. In parallel, planning for the ODCE’s transition to a stand-alone independent agency has progressed nonetheless. This has included an increased budget and staffing levels, including additional gardaí.

First, the main purpose of the Bill is to establish the new corporate enforcement authority and to enhance the framework for the conduct of business in Ireland under the Companies Act 2014. By establishing the ODCE as an agency, it will be better equipped to investigate complicated breaches of company law, which are sometimes very large cases involving multiple offences and multiple parties. The authority will also have operational autonomy, particularly in terms of the ability to recruit specialist skills and expertise, becoming an agency in its own right rather than an office of my Department.

The structure is based on the commission model with up to three members. It is designed to give the authority the flexibility to structure itself in meeting the differing demands of its remit, which includes investigation, prosecution, supervision and advocacy. There is the possibility that different commissioners could be given a lead in one particular or another area. This will also allow the authority to adapt if its workload expands significantly and if it needs to organise work into discrete areas or functions. In combination, these organisational changes will enhance the capacity of the authority to carry out multiple and complex investigations in parallel if the situation arises.

The general scheme also provides that the authority’s functional independence is fully compatible with statutory oversight by Government and accountability to the Houses of the Oireachtas. We need to give the new agency the tools it needs to meet the challenges it faces in its investigation and prosecution of alleged breaches of company law. The general scheme provides that all existing functions and powers of the ODCE-----