Ireland · Directors and the secretary

Notifying interests in shares and debentures and the register of directors' and secretaries' interests

the Companies Act 2014 · sections 262, 263 and 265 to 269

The notification periods are short and they differ. A notification required by section 263(2) or (7) must be made to the company within 5 days after the date of the event that gave rise to the duty (section 265(5)). The alternative means in section 265(4) is the delivery to the company, within 8 days after the date of the event, of a written statement by or on behalf of the person concerned. A third route, in section 265(2), is the delivery of an instrument of transfer within 30 days after the date of the instrument.

The company then has its own duty. Whenever it receives information from a director or secretary in consequence of a duty arising under section 261, 262 or 263, it must act on that information in the manner section 267(3) requires. Unless the register is in a form that constitutes an index in itself, the company must keep an index of the names entered in it, meeting the requirements section 268(1) sets.

Sections 262 and 263 impose the duty of notification on a director or secretary, and extend it to the interests the Act attributes to that person. Section 265 sets the means and the periods for making a notification, including the 5-day, 8-day and 30-day routes described above. Section 266(5) sets the condition on which certain information need not be entered, which turns on the identity of the officer, the holding, acquisition or disposal and the consideration being recorded elsewhere.

Sections 267 to 269 govern the register of directors' and secretaries' interests, the index, the period for which entries are kept, the right of members and others to inspect and the position when the company ceases to be within the relevant category. The register is one of the documents to which the section 216 inspection and copying rules apply.

Working files 40 and 41 of the IE-COMPANY agent toolkit cover this situation. Working file 40 works through each notifiable event, the route used, the date of the event and the date the notification reached the company. Working file 41 works through the register itself, the index, what was entered, when, and how requests to inspect or copy were handled. The output records each duty in sections 262 to 269 with a status and the evidence behind it.

• Working file 40 · Notification by directors and secretaries of interests in shares and debentures
• Working file 41 · The register of directors' and secretaries' interests

ComplianceSME tracks the Companies Act 2014 and updates the toolkit on your account through the Compliance Complete account, so that you are never working from a superseded version. Compliance Complete

• Appointing directors and the secretary, and the EEA-resident director rule
• Removing a director, electing a director and paying directors
• Board meetings, written resolutions of directors and the audit committee
• Directors' duties, shadow directors and the compliance statement
• Declaring an interest, loans to directors and substantial transactions

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