James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The requirement under the current law for every company to draft detailed articles of association will no longer apply. Instead, the Bill will contain provisions which will apply by default unless a company wishes to vary any of these provisions.

All in all, it is a very good Bill. It will accommodate the most common company type in Ireland, the private company limited by shares, which will now, for the first time in Irish company law, be placed at the centre of the legislation. All of the law which applies to this company type, which represents approximately 90% of all companies registered at the Companies Registration Office, will now be contained together in Parts 1 to 15 of the Bill. This law will be set out logically to follow the life-cycle of a company, starting with the provisions governing incorporation. The Bill is about cutting costs, waste and inefficiency, which will favour the development of business. As I said at the outset, it is a commonsense revolution and very important to us all going forward.

I hope the Minister will take note that we badly need jobs in the midlands, which is a region that is open for business. I was very disappointed when it was pointed out recently that the IDA brought no foreign investors to Longford in the past eight years. I would appreciate it if the Minister would look into this and see that this type of behaviour changes. Longford is a great place to work and any of the companies which operate there and have branches elsewhere claim that Longford is the supreme location for their staff and workforce.

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