Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 11:

In page 41, between lines 3 and 4, to insert the following:

“Amendment of section 23 of Act of 1993

60.Section 23 of the Act of 1993 is amended—

(a) in subsection (1), by the deletion of “for the purpose of compliance with so much of the Companies Acts, 1963 to 1990, as requires that there shall always be a minimum number of members of the company,”, and

(b) by the deletion of subsection (2).”.

This amendment outlines the conditions under which the Minister for Finance can transfer a share in the IAA. By this restructuring the IAA will become a regulator without a commercial mandate. As such, governance of the IAA will be more along the lines of the governance that now applies to the Commission for Aviation Regulation and not to a commercial company. Nevertheless, as a company structure it must, of course, abide by the obligations under the Companies Act 2014. That Act provide more flexibility to a single member company in respect of reporting and annual requirements. While this amendment does not change the structure of the IAA, it does allow flexibility for the Minister for Finance to facilitate it becoming a single member company to avail of more suitable reporting and annual requirements.

Section 23 of the Irish Aviation Authority Act restricts the Minister for Finance in the transfer of his share except where required by the Companies Acts. This amendment removes that restriction.