Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 8:

In page 4, between lines 33 and 34, to insert the following: “Amendment of Act of 2021

4.(1) Section 11 of the Act of 2021 is amended by the substitution of “Schedule 1” for “Schedule 2”.

(2) This section shall come into operation on the day on which section 11 of the Act of 2021 comes into operation.

(3) In this section, ‘Act of 2021’ means the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Act 2021.”.

The purpose of this group of amendments, which I signalled on Second Stage, is to correct a simple but important cross-referencing error in section 11 of the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Act 2021. That Act passed all Stages in the Houses of the Oireachtas and was signed into law by the President on 22 December 2021. The members of the committee will be familiar with the legislation and its content having considered it recently and they are supportive of its objective to establish the new corporate enforcement authority. As the members are aware, the Act provides the legal framework to transform the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, ODCE, into a stand-alone new authority.

Simply put, section 11 incorrectly refers to Schedule 2, when it should refer to Schedule 1. The Schedule itself provides for certain matters on the establishment of the new authority. By way of example, these include that "The Authority shall be a body corporate", with its name contained in the Constitution, "with perpetual succession" and a common seal. It is important that we fix this error without undue delay to not hold up the next phase of the transformation of the ODCE into the new authority.

Regarding the detail of the amendments, a new section 4 is inserted into the Bill that amends an incorrect reference to Schedule 2 by changing it to "Schedule 1".

The new section 4 and the amendments to the consequently renumbered section 5 have been drafted to ensure that this section will commence automatically on the commencement of section 11 of the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Act 2021. I would be grateful for the members' support in expediting this change.