Ireland: Combined Code principles to be placed on statutory footing

A Renewed Programme for Government has been agreed by the Government partners (Fianna Fáil and the Green Party). It contains measures concerning corporate governance, most notably the following objective (at p. 13):

We will put the principles of the 'Combined Code' of [sic] Corporate Governance on a legislative footing for all banks, public companies and state-sponsored bodies to deal with the following key areas of governance of institutions: board composition and independence; segregation of CEO and Chair; clear definition of executive and non executive responsibilities; audit committee composition, independence, role and function; responsibilities and composition of board committees; segregation of committee chairs; risk management; selection of non-executive directors; and sanctions for non-compliance".