James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 22:

In page 11, between lines 10 and 11, to insert the following: “Liability of directors and officers of corporate bodies

14. (1) Where an offence under this Act is committed by a body corporate and the offence is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any wilful neglect of, a person who, when the offence was committed, was a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate or of a person purporting to act in such a capacity, that person, as well as the body corporate, is guilty of an offence and is liable to be proceeded against and punished as if guilty of the first-mentioned offence.

(2) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, subsection (1) applies in relation to the acts or defaults of a member in connection with his or her functions of management as if he or she were a director or manager of the body corporate.”.

Amendment No. 22 creates a new section in the Bill to provide that directors and other officers of a body corporate may be liable to be proceeded against under the Bill where the offence is committed by the body corporate with the connivance of a director or other officer. This is a necessary and common provision in statutes such as this whereby offences can be committed by a body corporate but there stands an additional liability for directors if the offence is proven to be committed with their consent or connivance. It is important, therefore, that I make provision for it in the Bill so that offences of this type are not overlooked.