Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I do not know the answers to the questions she raises either, which is why it is important that we allow the director and the ODCE to do their work. The matter is before the courts.

Anyone has the right to challenge a decision in the courts if that person has a locus standi. With regard to resources, 36 staff are in place in the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, ODCE, and seven gardaí are also assigned. Reforms have taken place since 2012, which have included the recruitment of additional staff, particularly those with specific skills and expertise. This means the ODCE is well resourced to tackle the increasingly complex breaches of company law. Over recent years, nine professional staff have been recruited to the office to enhance its capability. These include a digital forensic specialist, two enforcement portfolio managers and six forensic accountants. Furthermore, the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation is engaging with the Public Appointments Service, PAS, to fill through open competition two more positions for forensic accountants and two more for enforcement lawyers. While recruitment is ongoing, the ODCE, in common with many other State agencies, faces difficulty with recruiting high-quality professional staff. I am advised that, at present, the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation has no requests for additional staff other than those I have mentioned. The director has the full support of the Government. As part of our white-collar crime package, which I published with the former Tánaiste, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, a few months ago, it is our policy to develop the ODCE, take it out of its current role as an office within a Department, make it a stand-alone statutory body in its own right and make it a national corporate enforcement bureau. That is a policy published by the Government last October or November. Legislation to do that is being developed.

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