Ms Teodora Corcoran:

Currently co-operatives have to have "limited" in their name. The word "co-operative" does not feature because there is no legislation for co-operatives. There is for industrial and providence societies. Therefore we are providing that the word "co-operative" or abbreviations in Irish or co-op in English will be reserved for societies that are registered under this legislation. This comes from the concern of some stakeholders that companies might have co-op in their name but they would be cosmetic co-ops, in that it would be in the name and people would have the feel-good factor that they are dealing with a co-op but in reality it would be a company. In the future, the name "co-op" would be reserved for entities under this legislation and they would have to have either the word "co-operative" or one of its abbreviations in the name.