Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As Minister for State with responsibility for trade promotion, digital and company regulation, I am pleased to introduce the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2021 for the consideration of the Seanad.

A long version of my speech has been circulated which includes details of the provisions in the Bill. I have also made a briefing available to Senators. The primary objective of the Bill is to establish a new corporate enforcement authority, CEA. It is a landmark step to strengthen and transform the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, ODCE, into a statutory and stand-alone agency with additional resources to investigate and prosecute white-collar crime.

A significant amount of work has been done in the last year to develop the legislation before the House. Along with the Tánaiste I engaged in detailed discussions on the general scheme of the Bill with members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment as part of the pre-legislative scrutiny in January this year. I am pleased to say that the Bill was welcomed by Deputies in the Dáil and we had a good debate on the policies and principles contained in the legislation. There is strong support for the establishment of the corporate enforcement authority as an independent, well-resourced agency that works to deliver on company law compliance.

By way of background, the legislation at hand reflects the detailed discussions and in-depth policy analysis of the best framework for combatting white-collar crime and tackling breaches of company law. The legislation is a key element of the suite of measures, the white-collar crime package, published by Government in 2017. The package was aimed at enhancing Ireland's ability to combat corporate, economic and regulatory crime. Corruption and white-collar crime damage our economy, breed cynicism in our society and are a threat to our international reputation. It is essential that the State and its agencies have all the powers possible to clamp down and prevent white-collar crime. Ireland has a hard-won reputation as a destination for foreign direct investment and as an international business hub. Stepping up our efforts to tackle white-collar crime will show we are serious about maintaining and building upon that reputation.

This reputation is about setting strong foundations for the new corporate enforcement authority. In that context, I want to focus on three areas. First, an important element of a new authority is its commission structure with up to three full-time members. This is designed to future-proof the new organisation and to ensure it is agile and can respond to changing circumstances. For example, if there are significant increased demands on the authority, it will be possible for it to be scaled up further or organised along specific lines of responsibility. In addition, the new authority will have the ability to appoint its own staff. It will be able to determine for itself the skills and the staff it will need to conduct its work, subject to overall budgetary sanction and approval.

Second, as noted both by the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment during its pre-legislative scrutiny and by Deputies more recently during the Dáil debates, resources are key to the success of this new authority. My Department and the Government fully considered the joint committee's strong views on this matter and the Government decision establishing the CEA referenced the actions needed to ensure the resourcing needs of the authority. The resources now being applied to the authority are in line with the director's own assessment of its requirement, based on its functions and the number and complexity of the cases that it will handle. I understand that the Garda Commissioner, who is independent in the exercise of his functions, has also written to the director committing increased levels of members of An Garda Síochána for the new authority.

In preparation for the establishment of the corporate enforcement authority, the budget of the ODCE has been increased by approximately €1 million on previous levels and approval granted for 14 additional civil servants to be assigned to the authority to enable it to undertake its new functions. This represents an increase of 20% in the level of funding to the ODCE and an increase of 35% in the number of Civil Service staff. The members of An Garda Síochána assigned to the corporate enforcement authority will increase from seven to 16. Taking the Civil Service and Garda increases together, the corporate enforcement authority will have a staffing level that has increased by nearly 50% overall.

Third, this legislation is also a key element of the implementation plan of the review of anti-corruption and anti-fraud structures in criminal justice enforcement, carried out under the chairmanship of Mr. James Hamilton. The Government approved and published its recommendations in December 2020. Since then, the Minister for Justice has developed and led an implementation plan to carry forward these recommendations.

My Department and the ODCE are centrally involved in this process. I support the cross-government nature of the plan. Corporate end economic crime will only be tackled by a whole-of-government, joined-up approach. I welcome that the criminal justice powers will be developed and implemented on a cross-cutting basis to enable all our investigative agencies to have the required powers while balancing the rights of those being investigated. This will ensure the new corporate enforcement authority has access to the necessary powers as they are developed.

I will now turn to other provisions included in the Bill in the area of company law.The Companies Act 2014 is kept under active review and its provisions are reassessed in light of changing circumstances such as court judgments or where a problem is identified by companies, practitioners or those implementing its provisions.

The Bill also proposes other changes to company law. These include, in particular, transparency measures relating to the register of companies and the use of personal public service numbers, PPSN, for directors, implementation of a Company Law Review Group recommendation on shares and share capital, closing off an outdated exemption from the requirement to include directors' names on correspondence, and an amendment to confirm the intention that chapter 7A of Part 17 of the Companies Act 2014 applies to the securities registered in the name of a central securities depository and those securities that are registered in the name of a nominee of the central securities depository.

The establishment of the new corporate enforcement authority was a commitment in the programme for Government, one designed to combat breaches of company law that are so damaging to the economy and breed cynicism in society in respect of insufficient attention being given to company misbehaviour and which undermine our international reputation. The Bill, when enacted, will be a milestone in the area of corporate enforcement. The new corporate enforcement authority will have more autonomy and resources to investigate suspected wrongdoing and to deal with larger and more complex investigations. My Department is working hard on the practical matters to support this legislation, such as recruitment and accommodation for the new authority. This new authority was promised more than four years ago. As Minister of State with responsibility for company regulation, I want to deliver on this promise, but I can only do so with the support of Senators. I hope to conclude the remaining Stages in the Seanad next week with their assistance. I look forward to hearing the views of Members.