Willie Penrose (Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 137: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if his attention has been drawn to the fact that a community group (details supplied) in County Westmeath is the subject of severe penalties if it is late in filing its returns; if the Companies Registration Office will waive or reduce same to the normal filing fee; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17577/05]

Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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It is a statutory requirement under the Companies Acts for companies to file an annual return and accounts with the Companies Registration Office, CRO. There is also a requirement for a late filing penalty to be paid where returns are filed late. It is the practice of the Registrar of Companies to waive late filing penalties in certain exceptional circumstances, for particular categories of company, such as charities, and on a once-off basis only. I understand that in no case have late filing penalties been waived by the registrar on a second occasion for any company.

The company in question met the criteria governing waiver and it was granted a once-off waiver of late filing fees in respect of its failure to file on time its annual return for 2002. That return should have been filed by 5 September 2002 but was not filed until 15 August 2003. The applicable late filing fee of over €1,000 was waived in line with the waiver criteria.

The company has since failed to file its returns for the years 2003 and 2004, despite having been written to as regards its filing obligations by the CRO in July 2002 and January 2003 and despite already having had the benefit of a waiver of late filing fees. It did not attempt to rectify its filing default until a strike-off warning issued to it last February.

The late filing fees accrued in respect of the returns for the years 2003 and 2004 as at the date of the CRO letter, of 11 May 2005, amounted to €2,014. That letter was a letter from CRO to the company returning its 2003 and 2004 returns because the full fees had not been attached. The late fees increase at the rate of €3 per day until a ceiling of €1,200 is reached in respect of any particular return.

The general policy on penalties for late filing of returns and accounts is working well as evidenced by the improved rate of submission of returns and accounts generally. I do not think that it would be appropriate for me to intervene in individual decisions of the Registrar of Companies on filing penalties and I do not propose to do so in this case.