Gay Mitchell (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 427: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if his attention has been drawn to the fact that companies can be formed on-line in Singapore, for example in under an hour, and that a similar regime exists in some Nordic countries; his plans to reform the process of company formation here in order to allow on-line formation in a short time frame; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12858/07]

Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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I understand that in some jurisdictions it is possible to incorporate companies on-line and in a very short time frame.

Under our current system most applications are submitted electronically and are dealt with within 3 to 5 days. This system is not yet fully on-line. To introduce a fully on-line facility will require changes in legislation. I understand that proposals in this regard are contained in the Report of the Company Law Review Group which I expect to receive shortly. The proposal will allow certain registers and records to be kept in electronic format as opposed to on paper as currently required.

The Companies Registration Office will shortly introduce an on-line name reservation system which will speed up the registration process further.