Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

In the midst of the pandemic we all have to change our behaviour with public health in mind. The relaxation of rules within the Companies Act is necessary and appropriate. The provisions of the Bill appear to be in line with what the Secretary General of the Department, Dr. Orlaigh Quinn, suggested would be needed in her statement to the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response. The term she used then was “practical workarounds” which is an apt description for what is being presented today.

I am quite sure the drafters of the primary Act had no reason to suspect that in a few short years we would find ourselves in a situation where the basic norms, like an organisation’s ability to hold an annual general meeting, AGM, in person would be called into question. Indeed, I understand the situation has already given rise to a legal action in the case of a company that attempted to restrict the attendance of its shareholders to its AGM. With this in mind there is a clear need for the provisions, such as sections 6 to 11, inclusive, which allow general meetings such as AGMs to be held wholly by electronic means during the interim period. It is very important with electronic means that there is no attempt to exclude and this is an issue that has been spoken about already.

Equally, section 5 of the Bill will amend the legislation surrounding the execution of documents under seal by allowing signatories to sign and seal separate pages which will then be considered a single document. The practical benefits from measures like these for the day-to-day administration of certain companies is definitely clear.

However, I would be lying if I did not say that I was concerned by the modesty of what has been brought forward here today. While the provisions of this Bill are fine in and of themselves, I worry that they represent a larger paralysis in the response to the pandemic. It is an unfortunate fact that there are many aspects of our day-to-day lives which we took for granted and are simply no longer viable for the foreseeable future.

A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I am struggling with some noise here in the Chamber. Can I ask for some quite-----

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