DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE ENFORCEMENT WELCOMES GOVERNMENT APPROVAL OF LEGISLATION TO ESTABLISH THE CORPORATE ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITY
The Government has approved publication of the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2021. The Bill will transition the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (“ODCE”) into an independent statutory agency with additional resources to investigate and prosecute white collar crime.
Welcoming the Government’s approval of the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2021, Director of Corporate Enforcement, Ian Drennan, said:
“The approval by Government of legislation paving the way for the establishment of the Corporate Enforcement Authority marks a watershed moment in Ireland’s strategic approach towards addressing economic and white collar crime.
With enhanced autonomy and significantly increased levels of investigative assets - including additional legal and digital forensics professionals and seconded members of An Garda Síochána - the CEA will assume the ODCE’s current caseload and will, I anticipate, continue to build on the ODCE’s forensic and robust approach towards tackling serious breaches of company law and associated wrongdoing in both civil and criminal realms.
Against the backdrop of a likely significant increase in corporate insolvencies resulting from the Covid pandemic, approval of the Bill at this juncture is a timely development.
The Government’s commitment to strengthening Ireland’s corporate and economic regulatory framework is bearing fruit. As a result of recommendations emanating from the Hamilton Review Group, the Advisory Council on Economic Crime & Corruption and the Economic Crime & Corruption Forum have recently been established – the latter of which will be chaired for the first year by a senior ODCE officer. These initiatives will, in addition to facilitating closer co-operation amongst specialist enforcement and regulatory bodies charged with tackling white collar crime, result in a national multi-annual strategy for combating economic crime and corruption being developed for consideration by Government.
In parallel, the Government’s Implementation Plan for giving effect to the recommendations of the Hamilton Review Group includes action points relating to the conferral of additional investigative powers on the CEA in the areas of surveillance, search warrants and the participation by civilian investigators in suspect interviews respectively”.
OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE ENFORCEMENT
17 AUGUST 2021
ENDS/
Contact: Mr. Conor O’Mahony
087 239 7741
conor_omahony@odce.ie