Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 6 May 1998

Vol. 490 No. 5

Written Answers. - Companies Act Compliance.

Gerry Reynolds

Question:

77 Mr. G. Reynolds asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of private companies who have complied with the terms of the Companies Act, 1963 in relation to completion of Form B10 stating other company interests among directors; and the community companies who have complied with the Act in relation to completion of the B10 forms and who are either administering public funds on behalf of Government Departments or in receipt of various Government funding or grants. [10593/98]

Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Mr. Treacy)

Companies are required, at registration, to give full particulars of their directors including their names, and former names, if any, business occupation, home address, date of birth, nationality and other directorships.

They are obliged under section 195 of the Companies Act, 1963, as amended by section 51 of the Companies Act, 1990, to notify any changes to the Registrar of Companies, within 14 days of the change happening, on Form B10.

The Registrar of Companies informs me that the number of companies which filed changes in the particulars of directorships in the past four years is as follows:—

Year	No. of companies
1994	25,834
1995	27,759
1996	27,344
1997	28,469

As private companies form the vast majority of companies, almost all of the returns in the table relate to those companies.

While inevitably there are companies who do not fulfil their obligations under the Companies Acts in relation to the filing of changes in their particulars it would be impossible to enumerate how many there are. Where resources permit the Companies Office ensures that the information, filed in any year — on an annual return — is consistent with all other information filed by that company previously.

The concept of "community companies" is not one used under the Companies Code and thus information in the form requested is not available.