New Irish companies legislation recently introduced will increase considerably the corporate compliance requirements to which Irish companies and their directors are subject. The Companies (Auditing and Accounting) Act 2003 which was signed into law last year (although it has only become operative to a limited extent to date) introduces requirements that are unique to Ireland, including the formal certification by directors of matters related to compliance by Irish companies with legal obligations. These obligations apply to many unquoted as well as quoted companies and will result in directors of Irish companies having, in some respects, greater responsibilities than those imposed by the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation in the US.
The requirements in relation to compliance statements are introduced by Section 45 of the Act. Directors of all public limited companies and private limited companies which have a balance sheet total of more than € 7.6m (£5.07m) and/or turnover of in excess of circa € 15.2m (£10.1m) will be required to include a compliance statement in the annual accounts which must be reviewed and, if necessary, revised at least every three years.
