Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The Bill contains 1,263 heads. Its purpose is to bring greater clarification and simplification to the companies code. It involves 13 separate company law Acts and its heads were approved by the Government on 25 July 2007. It is a substantial Bill in terms of its size and it is not possible to indicate at this stage when it will be published.

In any discussion on a Bill of such size, consideration can be given to the penalties appropriate to the many offences that it creates. It is important to bear in mind that there are already substantial criminal penalties in existing legislation for criminal conduct in connection with companies.

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