Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Breakfast Business with Enterprise Ireland on Newstalk.
Chapter 2: What are the current requirements for company directors' addresses?
Directors and senior officials with a company must currently publish their usual residential address with the company's registration office. But the government is worried that that may open the senior executives to abuse or even fraud.
And that's why it is consulting widely to see if the Companies Act needs to be changed to provide the public with a contact address in Ireland while keeping the residential details on file with the CRO. But will that enable potential wrongdoing to be hidden from the public?
Niamh Smith is the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise with special responsibility for trade promotion, artificial intelligence and digital transformation. Good morning, Minister.
Good morning, Joe.
Chapter 3: Why is the government considering changes to the Companies Act?
Thanks for having me on your show.
Tell us a little bit more about what is currently available to the public about company directors.
Yes, Joel, you quite rightly said there in your introduction that up until now, the CRO, when companies do their returns to the CRO, there's many facts and figures made available, but part of that is directors and secretaries, their residential address. And that has been the case for many decades. I suppose the idea with the consultation is
that the CLRG, which is also known as the Companies Law Review Group, have been tasked, they advise me and other ministers within the department about changes that we need to make with legislation. And part of the recommendation that they have made is
this suggestion that the residential address of directors and secretaries would be removed from public view and that they would now have the option to put in a contact address as an alternative. But it is important to say that while the usual residential address would be removed from public view, it would remain very much so. That information would still be
um submitted to the cro that those details would be available and i know your sort of angle and concern around this is around fraud or that directors might be a little bit more off the hook by not having to provide those details but just to reassure you that those details would still have to be provided to the cro what is the risk of keeping the status quo what's the risk with you know keeping everything as it currently is
Yeah, well, at the moment, I suppose what we're trying to do and we're seeking to do and having this open to public consultation at the moment is to get the right balance, I suppose, between access to information and individual privacy considerations. We do live in a very different world, Jo, and I know you're in public life, I'm in public life.
And really and truly, directors and secretaries, you know, it is part of it all where up until this point, public life has become a little bit more tricky in terms of personal safety for people. And that is where this has really come from. The Company Law Review Group is the
personal safety of directors and secretaries, if you're given the details of their residential home, effectively their home, their family are exposed in a very public way. So it doesn't seek to, I suppose, hide away from the responsibility that comes with being a secretary or a director of a company. It actually seeks to give, to strike the balance, as I said,
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Chapter 4: What are the potential risks of removing residential addresses from public view?
It has to be either the company address or another address, but I suppose it's to take the personal out of the public view.
And if NGOs really wanted to get in touch with these senior officers and directors, they have to go to the CRO to do that?
Yes, they do. And as I said, you know, entities such as the Corporate Enforcement, Revenue Commissioners, all of the, I suppose, state entities that rightly should have absolute contact with. I mean, this is about providing contact and having a free flow of information between directors and secretaries of companies and the authorities. So that will still remain the case.
And it would also be the case of the CRO would have all addresses, be it contact address or a residential address, I suppose what we're seeking to do, as I said, is to ensure that the personal safety of directors and secretaries is not in any way exposed or inhibited in any way like that.
Now, wearing your digital transformation hat, why can't we set up a company fully digitally and operate it fully digitally and close it down, if necessary, fully digitally? Why do we need any paperwork?
Well, so I am not in the job a full year, but that is certainly how we are. It's my vision, if you'd like.
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Chapter 5: How does the consultation process work for proposed changes?
I would certainly like to see that we would be in a position to do that. And I suppose every step we take, it would be to try and move a little bit closer to full on digitalisation. In my department, we have, I suppose, the help and support of Enterprise Ireland, IDA and our LEOs to help and establish companies to do that in a more free way as well. And we're certainly working towards that.
And I suppose it's important to point out that Over decades, the CRO have collected information from companies which give that information about company directors and secretaries.
So I suppose it's important to say at the outset that if and hopefully we will be able to make this legislative change, we won't be able to do it retrospectively for the very simple reason that paperwork has been handed in for many decades and we won't be able to redact information. So it will be going forward into the future.
Minister, thank you very much for joining us. That's Niamh Smith, the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise with special responsibility for trade promotion, AI and digital transformation. Back in a moment.