Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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71. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation when the report from the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement on an investigation (details supplied) will be published. [49837/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Section 955(1)(a) Report from the Director of Corporate Enforcement has been the subject of detailed consultation with the Office of the Attorney General.

On the advice received recently from the Attorney General, I do not have a legal power to publish statutory reports prepared pursuant to section 955 of the Companies Act, 2014.

I am conscious, however, that the shortcomings identified by Judge Aylmer in his ruling in the case of DPP v Sean Fitzpatrick have been the subject of significant concern. It is important to understand what factors led to such mistakes being made and we must take appropriate steps to address these shortcomings and ensure that they are never repeated.

In view of this, while I cannot publish the Report itself, I intend to publish an account of the investigative failures identified by Judge Alymer and the steps that are being taken to address them. These include ongoing reform within the ODCE and the establishment, as announced by Government earlier this month, of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement as a new independent company law enforcement agency, to provide greater autonomy to the agency and ensure it is better equipped to investigate increasingly complex breaches of company law. Work on the drafting of the necessary General Scheme of a Bill to give effect to this decision has commenced.