Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 January 2019
284. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation if she will clarify the appeals process on rejection of an application (details supplied) from the Companies Registration Office. [4091/19]
Amharc ar fhreagra285. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the reason the word Irish was rejected as part of a domain word when seeking to register a company through the Companies Registration Office (details supplied); the reason for rejection; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4092/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 284 and 285 together.
Due to insufficient details supplied by the Deputy in relation to the company concerned, I am not in a position to provide the information sought. However, I can advise the Deputy that the registration of proposed company names is determined by the Companies Registration Office pursuant to the provisions of Sections 26 and 30 of the Companies Act 2014. Certain words prohibited by statute are not allowed to be used in company names. Some generic words are not sufficient to distinguish similar company names. In this regard, applications are considered on the basis of the similarity of the proposed company name and names by which companies in existence are already registered. Details of general company names criteria can be found in CRO Information Leaflet No. 1, which is available at: https://www.cro.ie/Publications/Publications/Information-Leaflets.
I am informed that it is the policy of the Registrar of Companies not to permit domain suffixes in company names. The word “Irish” is permitted in company names. However, the word “Irish” would not be considered to be sufficiently distinctive if the proposed company name was otherwise too similar to that of a company already on the register.
Should an applicant wish to appeal the refusal of a company name by the Companies Registration Office, he or she may appeal in writing to the Registrar of Companies. The Registrar is independent in the exercise of her statutory functions and I, as Minister, have no direct role in relation to the exercise of those functions.
