Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)

Sections 54 and 55 provide for the reservation of a company name with the CRO. An application may be made to the registrar to reserve a company name and a fee must be paid. A name may be reserved for 28 days and an applicant may seek an extension of this period for another 28 days only. The CRO checks the suitability of all proposed names, having regard among other matters to the similarity of the proposed name to company names already on the register. A company name could be checked and reserved while the documentation for incorporation was being prepared. The registration of the final documents would be greatly expedited. A name reservation facility would assist with incorporation and would also facilitate almost immediate incorporation of a company electronically. It would be undesirable however if a name could be reserved indefinitely and repeatedly.

The CLRG, at paragraph 7.3.3 and 7.3.4 of its first report recommended the introduction of a company name reservation service. The group recommended that the name reservation fee should be offset against the incorporation fee if the person who reserved a name went on to incorporate a company with that name because the pre-approved name would not have to be checked by the CRO on receipt of the application for incorporation. The group further recommended that it should be possible to reserve a name for 28 days and, if requested by the applicant, for one further period of 28 days.