Written answers

Thursday, 18 October 2018

Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement Funding

Photo of Mick WallaceMick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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38. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the details of the funding increase to the ODCE; her plans regarding creating a statutory white collar crime agency; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42715/18]

Photo of Heather HumphreysHeather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Government agreed in October 2017 to establish the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement as an agency. The purpose was to give it greater autonomy over its resources and enhance its capacity to meet the increasing challenge of investigating suspected corporate offences. That decision was one of the Government’s package of “Measures to Enhance Ireland’s Corporate, Economic and Regulatory Framework”, which was published in November 2017 and is also referred to as the Government’s plan for tackling “white collar” crime.

This establishment of the ODCE as an Agency is intended to:

- enhance the ODCE’s independence, by providing it with more autonomy, particularly the ability to recruit the required specialist skills and expertise;

- build on its existing expertise and experience;

- strengthen its capability to investigate increasingly complex breaches of company law; and

- build on the organisational and procedural reforms that have been implemented by the current Director for Corporate Enforcement since 2012.

The Government has set out an ambitious timeframe for the establishment of the ODCE as an Agency. It is expected that the General Scheme of a Bill to give effect to this decision will be considered by Government shortly.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the new Agency will not be found wanting for the appropriate resources to carry out its functions.

Specific provision has been made in the Office’s pay allocation from 2015 to allow for the recruitment of additional staff. This has facilitated the recruitment of additional specialist expertise, including 8 Forensic Accountants, a Digital Forensic Specialist, 2 Enforcement Portfolio Managers and 2 Enforcement Lawyers.

Insofar as the 2019 allocations for my Department’s Offices and Agencies are concerned, the Expenditure Report 2019 set out the summary capital and current allocations for my Department in 2019. The gross allocation of €950.2million for my Department in 2019 as set out in the Report represents an increase of 9.1% on the Department’s 2018 allocation of €871million and includes an increase in our capital funding from €555m to €620million in 2019 and also an increase in our current funding from €316million to €330.2million next year.

The distribution of the Department’s 2019 capital and current expenditure as and between its Offices and its Agencies will be determined through the 2019 Revised Estimates Volume (REV) process which will be conducted in the weeks ahead. It is expected that the Rev 2019 will be finalised and published in early December 2019.

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