Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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334. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of prosecutions the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement has brought in 2017 and to date in 2018, in tabular form. [49282/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Investigations/prosecutions - The ODCE has a remit to investigate indications of both civil and criminal wrongdoing under company law. In conducting such investigations, the ODCE has a range of investigative powers at its disposal as provided for by the Companies Acts.  

Exercise of investigative powers

Those powers are supplemented by those powers that members of An Garda Síochána (“AGS”) possess by virtue of being members of AGS. During the period covered by the question, i.e., 2017 and 2018, the ODCE exercised the following investigative powers:

Enforcement actions

Enforcement actions arising from the exercise of the investigative powers referenced above can be civil in nature and/or criminal in nature.

Civil enforcement

In March 2018, and following a lengthy investigation, the ODCE lodged an application with the High Court for the appointment of Inspectors to Independent News & Media plc (“INM”). In September 2018, following an unsuccessful Judicial Review and a subsequent three day hearing, the President of the High Court appointed two inspectors to INM. The Inspectors are now in situ and are due to produce their first report to the High Court in April 2019.

Other civil enforcement actions, i.e., applications for the disqualification of the directors of insolvent companies that have been struck off the register, are dealt with under the response to question reference 49281/18.

Criminal enforcement – summary prosecutions

The ODCE is only empowered to initiate summary prosecutions (i.e., in the District Court). Only the Director of Public Prosecutions (“DPP”) can initiate a prosecution on indictment (i.e., in the Circuit Criminal Court before a jury).

Summary prosecutions are only suitable for relatively minor matters and, as such, the ODCE typically seeks to resolve issues of underlying non-compliance by other, more cost, effective means such as, for example, by issuing warning letters, by requiring evidence of rectification and/or issuing statutory directions requiring the taking of certain actions. Consequently, and consistent with its strategic focus on deploying finite specialist resources (i.e., Garda, accounting, legal and digital forensics) towards more serious indications of wrongdoing, the ODCE did not initiate any summary prosecutions in the District Court over the period 2017 to 2018.

Referrals to the DPP

Investigations into more serious indications of wrongdoing will typically result in a file being submitted to the DPP for consideration as to whether charges should be directed on indictment. Whether charges are directed is solely a matter for the DPP.

During the period covered by the question, i.e., 2017 and 2018, the ODCE submitted files to the DPP for consideration as follows:

Directions to charge on indictment

Once an investigation file is submitted to the DPP, the timeframe within which a decision is taken as to whether to charge or not is outside the ODCE’s control. In complex cases, it is not unusual for the DPP to seek advices on proofs from Counsel prior to making such a decision.

Where the DPP directs charges on indictment, the matter enters the Courts system where the timing is, similarly, outside the ODCE’s control. During the period covered by the question, i.e., 2017 and 2018, the DPP directed charges on foot of ODCE files as follows:

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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335. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of convictions the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement has achieved in 2017 and to date in 2018, in tabular form. [49283/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Prosecutions on indictment - Purpose of criminal investigations

It is important to appreciate that the purpose of a criminal investigation is not to secure a conviction. Rather, the purpose is to establish the facts. Thereafter, it is a matter for the DPP to determine, having regard to the facts and to potentially relevant offences, whether the direction of charges is appropriate and in the public interest.

Prosecutions on indictment

During the period covered by the question, i.e., 2017 and 2018, the following convictions resulted from charges having been directed by the DPP on foot of ODCE investigations: