THE IRISH TIMES Friday, May 17,2013

Bruton signals company law refonn LAURA SLATTERY

The Companies B i l l and measures pushed by the I r i sh presidency of the European U n i o n w i l l create "a compl i ­ance cu l tu re ra ther than a catch-them-out cul ture" , ac­cording to Minis te r f o r Jobs, Enterpr ise and Innova t ion

I Richard Bru ton . Opening a two-day confer­

ence on corpora te govern­ance i n D u b l i n , the Min i s t e r

J said the lesson of recent busi­ness scandals was tha t good corpora te governance was " n o t m e r e l y a des i rable add-on" f o r companies - i t

* was also k e y t o t h e i r long-term survival.

The Companies B i l l re­moves a range of regulations fo r private companies, includ­ing the obl igat ion to have two di rec tors and the requi re ­men t to hold a physical agm. "Alongside this, a range of i m ­provements w i l l mean clear­er and more transparent cor­pora te governance rules , such as a codi f ica t ion of the duties of directors," he said.

A range of accountancy re­f o r m s have also recen t ly been agreed by the E U , whi le the I r i sh presidency has held discussions on updat ing the audit directive.

Speaking af te r the event, M r B r u t o n said m o r e re­fo rms were necessary. "We need to imp lemen t some of the changes l i k e h a v i n g broader, more representa­t ive boards, l ike having bet­ter opportunit ies fo r citizens to scrutinise what 's happen­ing . "

O n the issue o f B r i t i s h MPs ' g rowing host i l i ty to the low tax contr ibutions of large US corporations such as A m ­azon and Google, M r Bru ton said "the complex interac­t i o n between tax codes i n a number o f states" had been exposed.

"What 's at stake i n a num­ber ofthese cases is tha t com­panies can game tax codes i n several member states, the US and non-European coun­tries, and that can result i n a l o w tax c o n t r i b u t i o n . This isn ' t a cr i t ique of the I r i sh tax code, w h i c h is pre t ty unique i n being very transparent. I t doesn't have special deals and the effective rate and the nominal rate are close togeth­er," he said.