Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 19 February 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

General Scheme of the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018: Discussion

Mr. Ian Drennan:

The Senator had to step out of the meeting when that subject was covered earlier to some extent. I am aware that he had specifically referred to that issue. It is a huge sum of assets being transferred. However, as I said earlier, what we have observed thus far is that most of the businesses that appear to be relocating or are giving consideration to relocation on foot of the risks they perceive Brexit causing for them in the UK appear to be in the financial services area. All of those entities have to be authorised by the Central Bank and thereafter must operate in accordance with Central Bank rules and regulations. The Central Bank is a regulator so it authorises, supervises and so forth. Our office is an enforcer so we do not have an engagement with an entity unless an indication of a potential issue has come to us. I am aware the Senator expressed a particular interest in this at the last meeting, but for the most part when we are on a business as usual operational footing we would have no engagement with such entities. It would only occur if a particular issue arose from an auditor or whatever the case may be. Generally speaking, in our experience and without breaching confidentiality, and Ms Sterritt might wish to speak about auditor reports, a very significant proportion of auditor reports do not attach to large financial institutions because of the nature of those entities.