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Company law resources

Chartered Accountants Ireland material

Technical releases and alerts

The Institute has a number of technical releases and alerts available on company law. Please click to go to Institute technical content where, with log in details, you can access technical releases and technical alerts on particular areas of the Companies Act 2014. For example, a technical release on receivers and discharge of receivers, and one on small and micro companies.

Other relevant Institute pages

Link to Insolvency pages (including SCARP)

Link to legislation pages (see also below)

Link to Company Law financial reporting requirements page

Other Institute material on company law

Click here for a guide to changes made in 2022 to the Companies Act 2014.

Click here for a news item on a change to the Companies Act 2014 which added additional grounds for application to restrict a company director.

Click here to access an article in October 2022 of Accountancy Ireland on some of these changes to the Companies Act, 2014.

Click here for information on the Employment (Collective Redundancies and Miscellaneous Provisions) and Companies (Amendment) Act 2024.

Please click here for a 2023 news item from the Institute on becoming a non executive director .

Click the link for an Institute article of April 2024 entitled "Are AGMs fit for purpose?".

Click to be brought to our dedicated page on company law thresholds and changes made in 2024

Legislation

The Companies Act 2014 (‘the 2014 Act’) was enacted on the 23 December 2014 and commenced on 1 June 2015. The 2014 Act consolidates the existing Irish Companies Acts dating from 1963 to 2013 and many of the related statutory instruments into a single statute while simultaneously introducing significant reforms to Irish company law.

Please click here to be brought to our legislation pages where you can access a selection of the most up to date company legislation. The revised administrative consolidation of the 2014 Act produced by the Law Reform Commission which you can access from the legislation page above or on the Law Reform Commission website is a very useful free resource for members. Please also see the webpages of the Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland where they published very useful information including a summary of changes to the Companies Act 2014. You can read the summary of changes by following the link here.

Other resources

Directors & directors' meetings

The last remaining interim measure under the Companies (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Covid-19) Act 2020 is the provision which permits the holding of virtual meetings, including AGMs. These provisions are in force until 31 December 2024. Click here to read details of the extension in the DETE press release. A proposal for these provisions to be made permanent is included in the General Scheme of Companies (Corporate Governance, Enforcement and Regulatory Provisions) Bill 2024 (see headings 8-12).

In November 2022 Mason Hayes & Curran LLP published a useful article setting out best practice tips for new and existing directors regarding the holding of board meetings dealing with matters such as convening and regulating directors’ meetings, quorum and notice of board meeting.

Please click here to access an information note of 2023 from the Corporate Enforcement Authority on accepting company directorships.

Please click here to access an information note of 2023 from the Corporate Enforcement Authority on
disqualification as a company director.

AGMs , annual reports, accounting records

In July 2022 the Financial Reporting Council in the UK published Good Practice Guidance for Company Meetings which is a guide for companies and shareholders to help ensure that there is effective shareholder engagement and participation when planning and conducting Annual General Meetings (AGMs).

Readers may be interested in a report published by the Financial Reporting Council Lab in the UK which identifies lessons learnt from the first year of mandatory structured digital reporting under the TD ESEF regulation. Click here for an Institute news item on the report .

See also the guidance issued by the FRC in December 2022 on what makes a good annual report and accounts This covers topics such as attributes of a good annual report and accounts, materiality and corporate reporting principles. Readers can access the guidance on what makes a good report here.

Please click for an article published by Mason Hayes & Curran LLP “Are Your Company Records Compliant on the Cloud During and After COVID-19?”. It outlines companies’ duties in relation to company registers, documents and accounting records and considers the use of cloud computing to maintain accounting records.

In relation to annual financial statements and the guarantee under section 357 Companies Act ,2014 please see below articles and information on this topic:

Scope of Section 357 Guarantees Extended (Formerly Known as Section 17 Guarantees) - WILLIAM FRY

Parliamentary Questions: Houses of the Oireachtas Company Law 14 Jun 2022

Matheson.com. managing-corporate-governance

These pages are provided as resources and information only and nothing in these pages purports to provide professional advice or definitive legal interpretation(s) or opinion(s) on the applicable legislation or legal or other matters referred to in the pages. If the reader is in doubt on any matter in this complex area further legal or other advice must be obtained. While every reasonable care has been taken by the Institute in the preparation of these pages, we do not guarantee the accuracy or veracity of any resource, guidance, information or opinion, or the appropriateness, suitability or applicability of any practice or procedure contained therein. The Institute is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of the resources or information contained in these pages.

Chartered Accountants Ireland can accept no responsibility for the content on any site that is linked to/from the Institute website. Links are provided in good faith for the potential support of members and students.