Tánaíste appoints Chairman of new Company Law Review Group

Mary Harney, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, today (Wednesday 8th December, 1999) announced the appointment of Mr. Thomas B. Courtney as Chairman of the Company Law Review Group. A practising solicitor, Mr. Courtney is Head of Legal with ICS Building Society, a subsidiary of Bank of Ireland Group. The newly appointed Chairman was an active member of the recent Working Group on Company Law Compliance and Enforcement which was chaired by Mr. Michael McDowell S.C. and which reported to the Tanaíste in November 1998.

The establishment of a statutory Company Law Review Group was a key recommendation of the McDowell Group. The Tánaiste is now delivering on this recommendation by establishing the Review Group on an interim, non-statutory basis. A new Company Law Enforcement Bill will be published in the New Year and provisions in this Bill will put the Review Group on a statutory footing.

The McDowell Group concluded that Irish company law has been characterised by a culture of non-compliance and by a failure of companies and their officers to meet their obligations. It regarded action to counter existing under-enforcement and this culture of non-compliance as an urgent economic, social and legislative priority. The Group recommended that a new Company Law Review Group should be established on a statutory basis to develop proposals which would form the basis for a regular, and comprehensive, company law reform programme. It was the view of the McDowell Group that this is vital to ensure that Ireland, in its continuing efforts to develop a strong economy, has a first class system of company law which elevates Ireland to the fore as most suitable contender for the location of international commerce.

The Tánaiste will invite a number of representative and official bodies to put forward nominees for membership of the Review Group. In deciding on the ultimate composition of the Review Group the emphasis will be on combining expertise with a broadly representative membership. The Review Group will operate on the basis of a biennial work programme following which the legislative proposals of the Group will be put to the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment for consideration.

Commenting on his appointment as Chairman, Tom Courtney said "The speed of establishment of the new Group is a most significant commitment by the Tánaiste and Government to timely company law reform. Now that legislation to implement the recommendations of the McDowell Group on company law compliance and enforcement, is in preparation, it is apt that we should turn our focus to company law reform. Company law should always facilitate and encourage private enterprise and must never be allowed to become an obstacle to 'doing business' – to the extent that isolated provisions of our existing company law have. I look forward to the new Group making appropriate recommendations to government at the earliest possible opportunity."

Mr Courtney is the author of a number of authoritative legal texts, most notably "The Law of Private Companies", published in 1994, and is editor of the leading law journal, Commercial Law Practitioner; he is also consultant and examiner for the Law Society of Ireland.

For further information contact Pat Nolan, Secretary to the Group, at Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, tel. 6312486, e-mail pat_e_nolan@entemp.ie