Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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54. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation her views on whether the full report of the trial of a person (details supplied) should be made available to Members of Dáil Éireann in order to identify potential legal lacunas and weaknesses from existing company law that emerged in the case with a view to strengthening the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018. [20589/19]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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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 by 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.

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.

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.

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