Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 6, lines 27 to 31, to delete all words from and including "information" in line 27, down to and including "purchased;" in line 31 and substitute the following:

"information for total purchases on the recognised stock market concerned on each such day:

(a) the date, in the place outside the State where the recognised stock market concerned is located, of the overseas market purchase;

(b) the purchase price at which the shares were purchased, or the highest such price and lowest such price paid by that company or subsidiary;".

Amendment No. 2 provides for the amendment of section 226(a) of the Companies Act 1990 which is being inserted by paragraph (g) of section 3 of this Bill. Section 226(a) outlines information that is required to be published on the company website following the purchase by a company of its own shares on a recognised stock exchange outside the State. As it currently stands, the section requires that for each purchase of its own shares, a company must publish the time of the purchase and the price paid for the shares.

It has since been brought to my attention that companies may make several purchases of their own shares on a single day at different prices. In order to provide more focused information and to avoid an unnecessary administrative burden on companies, I propose to amend the requirement to publish the price of shares purchased to provide an alternative option that will require companies to publish the highest and lowest prices paid only. I also propose to delete the requirement to publish the time of each purchase in order to avoid the necessity for a lengthy list of times, and to restrict the requirement to the date of purchase only.

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