On 24 December 2013, the Companies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2013 was signed into law by the President. This has the effect of changing the Companies Acts citation to "the Companies Acts 1963-2013".
This Act will enable small companies to apply directly to the Circuit Court for examinership, a measure which is aimed at reducing the costs associated with an application for examinership for small companies.
It is important to note that the amendment to the existing examinership provisions for small private companies (Section 2):
This provision will enable small private companies to apply directly to the Circuit Court to have an examiner appointed instead of having to apply to the High Court first.
This is aimed at lowering costs and providing greater accessibility for small private companies to the examinership process by eliminating the need for High Court involvement. Small companies are those that satisfy two out of the following three conditions:
- Balance sheet not exceeding €4.4million;
- Turnover not exceeding €8.8million; and
- Number of employees not exceeding 50;
If you have a query in relation to this area of law please contact John Bollard on 01-6794165 or by email at john@donaghys.ie