Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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137. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if she and her officials explored all possible mechanisms to date in the Houses of the Oireachtas, and-or legal options, to facilitate the publication of the ODCE report into the collapse of a trial of a person (details supplied); and if this cannot be done through the parliamentary or committee system, the other options that can be considered in the Houses of the Oireachtas to achieve this objective in view of the outstanding public interest and transparency for this action. [17969/19]

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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138. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation her views of whether the full report of the trial of a person (details supplied) should be made available to the Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas in order to identify potential legal lacunae and weaknesses that emerged in this case in existing company law and to ensure that Members can input this information into the scrutiny of the draft companies (corporate enforcement authority) Bill which will ultimately produce more robust legislation in the area. [17970/19]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 137 and 138 together.

There has been extensive engagement with the Office of the Attorney General on the publication of the Report of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) prepared under section 955(1)(a) of the Companies Act 2014.

Because of section 956 of the Companies Act 2014 the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation is prohibited from publishing reports prepared pursuant to Section 955 of the Act.

The Companies Act 2014 contains strict confidentiality obligations on information in the possession of the Director. This is because there is a public interest in ensuring that ongoing and future investigations are not compromised by the disclosure of details of an individual investigation and the investigative process itself.

However, while it is not possible to publish the report itself, an account of the investigative shortcomings identified by Judge Aylmer, in so far as they relate directly to the role of the ODCE, was published on 4 December 2018 on the website of my Department. The account sets out the factors which led to the investigative shortcomings identified by the Judge, including the need for a broader skills base, a greater range and depth of knowledge and experience of criminal prosecutions within the Office and a greater appreciation of the necessity to employ appropriate procedures and manage risk.

Now that we know the factors that led to the shortcomings, our focus has shifted to ensuring we use the lessons of this investigation, note the steps already taken to address them and identify further measures to enhance the capacity of the ODCE to tackle corporate wrongdoing.

Since the time of the investigation, the Director has implemented multiple reforms within the ODCE, including staffing and procedural reforms that address many of the issues that led to the investigative shortcomings outlined by Judge Aylmer. Further measures to be taken include the establishment, as announced by Government in November 2017, of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement as a stand-alone agency, to provide it with greater autonomy in relation to staffing resources and ensure it is better equipped to investigate increasingly complex breaches of company law.

In his judgment, Judge Aylmer did not point to any deficiencies in the company law framework. Nevertheless, as part of the process of preparing legislation to establish the ODCE as an Agency, any further powers that are identified as a requirement for carrying out the functions of the Agency will be conferred under statute as appropriate.

The General Scheme of a Bill to establish the ODCE as an Agency was published on my Department’s website on 4 December 2018 and is currently subject to pre-legislative scrutiny by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation. The General Scheme proposes new, or develops existing powers and investigative tools for the Agency, including:

Enhanced search and entry powers;

Admissibility of statements;

Access to telecom records;

Power to oblige liquidators to provide evidence that they are qualified to act as liquidators;

New grounds to apply to the Courts for an Order to restrict a person from acting as a director in winding-up situations.

With regard to the procedures pertaining to the parliamentary or committee system, such procedures are a matter for the Houses of the Oireachtas.