I am pleased to have the opportunity to present this Bill for the consideration of the House following its successful passage through the Dáil last week. The Bill provides for a genuine alternative to examinership for small and micro companies. It gives these companies the same access to corporate rescue as larger companies, thus providing them with a genuine opportunity to restructure their debts and continue trading. In light of the economic impacts of the pandemic, the Government made a commitment to review the …

If I miss any specific questions that were raised, I will come back to them. I took note of them all. I thank everybody for their good wishes. I will pass them on to Aideen later. I am not sure she would have expected her name to be bandied about in the Seanad today but that is the price one pays for being married to a politician. She will welcome the good wishes, but I am not sure she will welcome her name being mentioned in the Seanad. I thank all for their good wishes, which I appreciate. I also thank Senators f…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, who sends his apologies. It is well recognised how vital telecommunications are to citizens for so many aspects of their daily lives, including remote working, studying and staying in touch with family members. These services have proved essential since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions imposed nationally. They will continue to provide cri…

I cannot answer the Deputy's question today on the assessment of the level of activity that is ongoing but I will bring that query back to the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and ask him or his office to revert directly to the Deputy. The advice to the public is people need to be vigilant as to what is going on. If individuals are receiving persistent missed calls from an unknown number, they are advised in the first instance to contact their service provider and follow the code of practice, details of which are available o…

I thank Deputy McGuinness for raising this issue and for his constructive input. There is no doubt that this is an issue that affects businesses and people working from and studying at home. It is an issue on which the Government is focused on delivering. The national broadband plan contract was signed with National Broadband Ireland in November 2019 to roll out a high-speed and future-proofed broadband network with an intervention area which covers 1.1 million people living and working in an area of over 544,000 p…

I agree with what Deputy McGuinness has said. He has made very constructive points. One cannot argue with them. National Broadband Ireland has made available, through its website, an indicative timeframe as to when its intervention area will be rolled out, whether that is in my constituency, Deputy McGuinness's constituency or any other constituency. People need to know when they can expect broadband to come into an area, but unfortunately it will take a period of time to roll out. The programme for Government has …

Is Deputy Cathal Crowe yet to speak?

I sincerely thank the Regional Independent Group for submitting this Private Members' business today. I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I want to put on the record of the House that I am a postmaster myself. It has been in my family for many decades and many generations. I know first hand the challenges faced by the post office network. I thank the House for the opportunity to contribute to the debate today. There is no doubt about the important role that An Post and the post office network pla…

I thank the Deputy. She is correct: the social and cultural importance of a business does have an impact on its future viability. We have seen how members of the public have rallied around local businesses that matter to them during the pandemic and supported them to ensure that they would be in a position to continue to provide services to the local community as the economy reopens. However, I am unable to accept the amendment at this time. It is not because I consider the amendment to be without merit; it is beca…

I appreciate what Deputy O'Reilly is saying and I see where she is coming from. If I was on that side of the House, I might be saying the same thing. As Deputy Bruton said, we have done a lot of work in the Company Law Review Group and preparatory work in terms of engaging with experts in this field, and we had a public consultation. I appreciate the co-operation of the committee in facilitating the waiver of the pre-legislative scrutiny. To be fair, the Opposition saw the benefit of doing that and the benefit was …

This is good legislation. It achieves what we set out to achieve and is largely based on an internationally recognised examinership process that the world will look at and say is good. Perhaps it could be improved slightly, but it will achieve our aspirations if we enact it before the summer recess. The purpose of that is to save companies and protect jobs. Our domestic economy contracted by 5.5% in 2020. The companies dependent on this legislation being enacted need it now. We are looking at companies that support…

Section 558N of the Bill is based on the existing section 520 of the Companies Act, which gives the court full flexibility to put a stay on proceedings if it sees fit. Section 20 provides that no proceedings in relation to a company may commence except by leave of the court and that the court may stay existing proceedings. Employees will not find themselves unfairly prejudiced by this provision or unable to assert their legal rights. First, where it is proposed to stay proceedings, all interested parties will be pu…

I had the very same query during drafting of the Bill. I am happy to give the Deputy the clarification I received. It eased my concerns and I hope it will ease hers. Officials from my Department considered this point in detail in consultation with the Attorney General and the advisory council, and examined how best to guarantee that creditors received the various notices required under the Bill. In doing so, we examined existing provisions in examinership, general notice requirements under the Companies Act 2014, n…

The Bill is consistent with the provisions in the examinership process relating to redundancy and collective agreements. Redundancies which may arise as a result of a company facing trading difficulty must be dealt with within the existing employment rights legislative framework. Employees may be made redundant under the Redundancy Payments Act 1967 if the circumstances of the redundancy fall into one of the five definitions set out in that Act, that is, closure of the employer's business or its cessation in a part…

I accept the amendment has been brought in good faith and in an attempt to improve the process and provide cost savings. However, it is not workable from a practical perspective. I will explain why. On initial appointment the process adviser must notify creditors, the Revenue Commissioners and employees of his or her appointment. The notification must be sent by the fifth day and include a request for information from parties concerned in respect of the debts owed to them and any other information they consider mat…

I am opposed to this amendment because I do not believe it is necessary. The Bill already provides for a discrete amendment to section 690A of the Companies Act 2014, as inserted by the Companies (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Covid-19) Act 2020, to ensure that meetings required by the process can be held virtually. The 2020 Act set out temporary company law measures required to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the normal operation of company law for an interim period. This period was extended to 31 December 202…

I hope the Deputy can clarify his amendment because we are not sure we fully understand what he seeks to amend. He has tabled an amendment to the new section 558X proposed in section 3. This section provides for supplemental provisions relating to proxies at a meeting of members and creditors to consider rescue plans and directly mirrors existing provisions of the Companies Act. The proposed section 558X(5) provides that, where a company is a creditor, any person authorised under that company's seal to act on its b…

The threshold at which the rescue plan is deemed to be accepted by a class of creditors has been carefully considered in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General. In cases of examinership, section 540 of the Companies Act 2014 provides that a rescue plan "shall be deemed to have been accepted by a meeting of creditors or of a class of creditors when a majority in number representing a majority in value of the claims represented at that meeting have voted, either in person or by proxy, in favour of the r…

The process will be quicker if there is no need to go to the courts. We cannot determine its speed if there is a need to go to the courts. This amendment has been brought in good faith in an attempt to improve upon the process and bring cost savings to companies. The 21-day period provided for creditors and members to object to the rescue plan was carefully considered and drafted in line with advice from the Office of the Attorney General. That was considered the minimum period to ensure that the process was consti…

There is merit in the amendment, and it is important that there be provisions to prevent the process being abused by someone seeking to accrue professional fees. Following the concerns raised by the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment, a number of additional provisions were inserted in the Bill regarding the process adviser's fee. The Bill requires that this fee is notified to the directors of the company in advance of the appointment of the process adviser. This means the directors can make an info…