Under section 150(11) of the Companies Act 2014, the Minister may make Regulations regarding exempting a residential address of a company officer from appearing on the Register of Directors and Secretaries kept by the company or the Register kept by the Registrar of Companies, if it is determined that the circumstances concerning the personal safety or security of the person warrant such an exemption and any other conditions as specified in the Regulations are satisfied. The Companies Act 2014 (Section 150) (No. 2) Regulations 2015 (S.I. No. 543 of 2015) provide that an application to request an exemption can be made to the Registrar, accompanied by a Form T1 and a supporting statement from an officer of An Garda Síochána not below the rank of a Chief Superintendent.
The request for such an exemption can either be made when a company officer is first appointed or at a later stage. The exemption takes effect from the date that the Form T1 has been registered and applies to forms submitted to the Companies Registration Office after the date of registration.
Information in relation to the withholding of the residential address of a company officer is currently available on the CRO website at https://www.cro.ie/en-ie/Post-Registration/Company/Officer-Address-Disclosure. I understand that the Registrar is reviewing the CRO website with a view to ensuring that information on this provision is given sufficient prominence.
The Registrar does not have a general power to administratively amend the public register or to allow amendments to be made to registered documents or a statutory power to remove registered submissions from the Register. It would not be practical to retrospectively provide for an exemption as the information on the Register is available immediately after registration and widely disseminated. The CRO website is the access point for those seeking information from the Register as part of due diligence exercises and the Registrar also facilitates bulk data providers who, on a daily basis, take data from the Register electronically and make it available to other third parties.
