Matheson Spring Horizon Tracker: Legislative And Regulatory Updates, Spring 2023

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Law Firm: Matheson
• Subject Matter: Finance and Banking, Corporate/Commercial Law, Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Insolvency/Bankruptcy/Re-structuring, Financial Services, Corporate and Company Law, Insolvency/Bankruptcy, Trials & Appeals & Compensation
• Author: Irene Lynch Fannon
• Published date: 23 March 2023

We are pleased to share the Spring 2023 edition of the Matheson Horizon Tracker. As usual the Tracker describes key Irish and EU legislative and regulatory developments within the framework of the publication of the Irish Government legislative programme for that particular Oireachtas session. For this Spring 2023 session, rather than describing the legislative programme from a forward looking perspective, we decided to review progress of the programme through the Oireachtas session, now nearing its closure for Easter recess on 30 March 2023. Similarly, we have tracked progress of key developments from Europe and from national regulators, in particular the Central Bank, surveying the period from our last Autumn 2022 Horizon Tracker to our chosen 'as of' date of 13 March 2023.

A key characteristic of the current legislative period is that the European influence on legislative developments is particularly evident. Our Employment and Pensions Team consider legislation which anticipates or implements EU instruments, focussing on work - life balance measures, including the aptly named Work Life Balance Miscellaneous Provisions Bill (published in October 2022), and further analysing new protected disclosure legislation which transposes the EU Whistle Blower Protection Directive. As we all know, sustainability is a theme reflected in many EU legislative initiatives including the European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) which must now be implemented in Ireland before July 2024. This is coupled with the much discussed Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive which is going through EU legislative processes at present. A recent initiative in that legislative process considers the inclusion of financial services in this directive.

Continuing with the sustainability theme, there are significant initiatives in the Financial Services sector. We are conscious of the fact that three of our practice areas engage with financial services generally speaking and so a collaborative overview of matters relating to this topic is important to us. For this reason we have a section in the Tracker collating all initiatives relating to Sustainable Finance. Even though the Taxonomy Regulation applied from 1 January 2022, its additional provisions that substantially contribute to other environmental objectives (sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources; transition to a circular economy; pollution prevention and control; protection and...