Company Secretary in Ireland

Ireland Company Secretary

We provide Company Secretarial and Compliance services for your Irish company.

All Irish companies are required by Irish law to have a Company Secretary. The company secretary acts in accordance with the directors’ instructions.

The company secretary’s main functions are to oversee the company’s day to day administration and to ensure specifically that the company complies with the law and observes its own regulations.

Our Company Secretarial Service

We provide a Company Secretarial Service to ensure that important statutory requirements are fulfilled by your Irish company. To use our Company Secretarial Service, simply select the option on our order form.

As your Company Secretary our duties include:

  • The preparation and submission of the annual return for your company
  • Maintaining the register of directors and secretary
  • Issuing share certificates and recording transfers of shares
  • Maintaining the register of members and debenture holders
  • Arranging for charges to be registered and recorded in the register of charges
  • Filing of documents at the Companies Registration Office including changes of registered office, changes of directors and the secretary and their particulars

Appointment of the Company Secretary

The secretary of your company must be named in the documents filed with the Companies Registration Office at incorporation.

Duty of Disclosure

A company secretary, as an officer of the company, is under an indirect duty to comply with the company’s obligations under the Companies Act 2014.

The company secretary is obliged to record information for inclusion in the Register of Directors and Secretary:

  • Name and address
  • Registered office address – if the secretary is a company
  • Date of Birth – if the secretary is an individual
  • Interests held in shares and debentures of the company
  • Details of any shares or debentures purchased or sold in the company, its holding company, any subsidiary or any subsidiary of its holding company

Administrative Secretary Duties

  • Keeping the minutes of general meetings and meetings of the board of directors
  • Keeping, and making available for inspection, the company’s registers on behalf of the directors, including the: Register of member, Register of directors’ and secretary’s interests
  • Ensuring that documents are filed with the Registrar of Companies within the prescribed time limits such as the company’s annual and other returns
  • Communicating with the company’s members and notifying the members of meetings of the company, details of proposed resolutions to be considered at meetings, circulating them with copies of the annual financial statements
  • Delivering copies of special resolutions and certain other resolutions passed by the company
  • Publishing statutory notices
  • Giving notice to members of meetings and communicating with members generally
  • Administering share transfers
  • Ensuring that the board’s decisions are properly communicated
  • Furnishing the Registrar with particulars of charges entered into by the company
  • Custody of the company seal
  • Ensuring the company has its name in legible lettering, outside each place at which it conducts business
  • Ensuring that the company’s letterhead bears the appropriate details

Administrative functions such as keeping charge of the register of members, register of directors and secretaries, register of debentures and register of directors shareholdings.

Company Secretaries’ Responsibilities

A company secretary’s main functions are to oversee the company’s day to day administration and ensure the company complies with the law and observes its own regulations.

Secretaries’ Duties include:

  • Statutory Duties under the Companies Act
  • Duty to exercise due care and diligence
  • Duty of disclosure of certain personal information
  • Administrative duties

Irish companies require an individual or a corporate secretary to act as the company secretary. The company secretary may be one of the directors.

The company secretary maintains company records, files the annual returns and carries out tasks from the articles of association or constitution.

Every company registered under the provisions of the Companies Act 2014, is required to have a company secretary.

Irish Company Registers

The company secretary keeps up to date the statutory registers, which are the:

  • Register of Shareholders
  • Register of Directors and secretaries
  • Register of Directors’ and secretaries’ interests in shares and debentures
  • Register of debenture holders together with copies of the instruments which create charges

Company Secretary Functions

The functions of a secretary are essentially administrative:

  • To provide administrative support and guidance to the board of directors
  • Ensure the board’s decisions and instructions are properly carried out and communicated
  • Ensure that the company complies with all relevant statutory and regulatory requirements
  • Responsibility for communication with the shareholders
  • Executes important documentation on behalf of the company with a director

Ireland Company Secretary Duties and Powers