IT’S BEGUN – The Companies Act 2014 has finally arrived, and has been up and running since 1st June, 2015.
Although there are teething problems sinces it commenced on Monday 1st June 2015 for now they appear to be mainly of a technical nature, e.g. problems filing changes of directors and other statutory forms. Overall commencement has started quietly possibly due to a collective intake of breath by service providers. Everyone seems to be waiting to see what everyone else will do but, at some stage we are all going to have to dive into the Act.
The naysayers forecasting Armageddon have been proved wrong as the transition period starts for service providers and companies in Ireland. A bright new day – possibly!. Certainly it will be easier to incorporate a company but, there will be compliance issues surrounding companies in existence prior to 1st June 2015. An anomoly surrounding shares raised by the Irish Stock Exchange has already been detected with amending legislation likely to be enacted shortly. The discontinuance of Places of Business for External Companies will definitely catch companies out. It will be interesting to see if this list grows any longer.
Despite such quibbles it is an astonishing achievement that so many people (on or connected with the Company Law Review Group) gave their time voluntarily to consolidate 150 years of case law, and over 50 years of company law to generate an Act set out in clearly defined sections and plain English. Their efforts, and the commencement of The Companies Act having waited almost 15 years are to be applauded.