Reform history

## PART 1 Preliminary and General

**1.** (1) This Act may be cited as the Credit Guarantee (Amendment) Act 2016.

(3) *Parts 1* to *3* and the Credit Guarantee Act 2012 may be cited together as the Credit Guarantee Acts 2012 and 2016.

**2.** In this Act—

## PART 2 Amendment of Principal Act

**3.** Section 1 of the Principal Act is amended—

(iii) the aggregate of the value of the financial products provided under all qualifying finance agreements with the qualifying enterprise concerned exceeding the maximum value specified under that subsection;”,

(i) by the substitution of “participating finance provider” for “participating lender” in each place where it occurs, and

(vi) “qualifying loan agreement”.

**4.** The Principal Act is amended by the substitution of the following section for section 2:

(4) The Minister may withdraw an approval under this section if a finance provider ceases to comply with the applicable conditions or contravenes any other provisions of a credit guarantee scheme.”.

**5.** The Principal Act is amended by the substitution of the following section for section 4:

(8) In this section ‘yearly credit amount’ means, in relation to any particular year, the aggregate of all credit amounts in respect of all qualifying finance agreements made in that year.”.

**6.** Section 5 of the Principal Act is amended—

(6) For the purposes of this section, controlling interest shall be construed in accordance with subsection (14) of section 494 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 and, accordingly, that subsection shall apply in relation to a finance provider subject to any necessary modifications.”.

**7.** The Principal Act is amended by the substitution of the following section for section 8:

(5) The Minister shall apply the premium received by him or her from a participating enterprise for the purpose only of defraying the costs of the credit guarantee scheme which applies to the enterprise.”.

**8.** The Principal Act is amended by the substitution of the following section for section 9:

shall be null and void.”.

**9.** The amendments to the Principal Act effected by this Part shall not apply in respect of—

## PART 3 Counter Guarantees

**10.** In this Part—

(a) the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, or

“qualifying enterprise” shall be construed in accordance with section 3 of the Principal Act (and, accordingly, the reference in that section to “Act” includes this Part);

(d) that does not permit the promotional financial institution operating the PFI guarantee scheme to provide guarantees as would result in the maximum value referred to in *subsection (4)(d)* of *section 13*, specified in the counter guarantee scheme referred to in *paragraph (b)*, being exceeded.

**11.** (1) Subject to this section and *section 12*, the Minister may, in accordance with a counter guarantee scheme, enter into an agreement (in this Part referred to as a “counter guarantee agreement”) with a promotional financial institution guaranteeing the due repayment to that institution of such part, as is specified in the counter guarantee agreement, of moneys (excluding any interest and other charges) paid by that institution to finance providers pursuant to qualifying PFI guarantee agreements.

(b) A counter guarantee agreement the subject of a notice under *paragraph (a)* shall not apply to new qualifying PFI guarantee agreements.

(a) all qualifying finance agreements, to which guarantees under a credit guarantee scheme apply, entered into in any year, and

exceeding €15.6 million.

**13.** (1) The Minister may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, make a scheme or schemes for the purposes of this Part.

(b) The Minister may require that any document, information or report referred to in *subsection (2)(f)* given to him or her by a participating PFI in compliance with a scheme under this section be attested as to the truth of the contents of the document or report or, as the case may be, as to the truth of the information, by a statutory declaration made by that participating PFI.

**14.** (1) Subject to this section, the participating PFI shall, in accordance with the counter guarantee scheme, pay to the Minister an amount (in this section referred to as the “premium”) determined by the Minister in accordance with the methodology specified in the scheme for the purposes of making that determination.

(5) The Minister shall apply the premium received by him or her from a participating PFI for the purpose only of defraying the costs of the counter guarantee scheme which applies to the participating PFI.

**15.** The Minister may, at any time, conduct a review of the operation of a counter guarantee scheme and, not later than 2 months after completing such review, make a report in writing to each House of the Oireachtas of his or her findings and conclusions resulting from that review.

**16.** The expenses incurred by the Minister in the administration of this Part shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Finance, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

## PART 4 Unrelated Miscellaneous Amendments to other Enactments

**17.** Section 101 of the Employment Equality Act 1998 is amended by the insertion of the following subsection:

‘relevant date’ means such date as may be prescribed by, or determined in accordance with, regulations made by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.”.

**18.** Section 34 of the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 is amended, in subsection (6) (inserted by section 52(1) of, and Part 1 of Schedule 7 to, the Workplace Relations Act 2015), by renumbering that subsection as subsection (7).

**19.** The Workplace Relations Act 2015 is amended—

“5. Section 26(3) of the Employment Permits Act 2006”.

**20.** Section 916 of the Companies Act 2014 is amended, in subsection (1), by the substitution of “section 915(1) ” for “section 915(2) ”.