Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 56: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation the action being taken to assist struggling businesses who are finding it hard to file their accounts on time in view of the fact that the Companies Registration Office has announced that it will not waive sanctions on companies who breach the rules even if economic hardship was the cause; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24290/10]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Companies Acts every company is required to file an Annual Return with the Companies Registration Office (CRO). The filing of this return ensures transparency for all interested parties conducting business with a company. Almost 85% of companies now have a current return filed with the CRO compared with 13% of companies in 1997 filing an annual return on time.

The CRO has introduced a number of initiatives over recent years to assist companies meet their filing obligations under the Companies Acts. These initiatives include: the introduction of a range of electronic or e-forms; incentives in terms of either no filing fee or 50% of the manual equivalent were introduced to encourage take-up and now 60% of all forms lodged are submitted electronically; increased auto-registration of forms speed up processing times and public access to documents; the CRO and Revenue have worked closely in recent months to facilitate companies wishing to file electronically with the CRO to use the Revenue eSignature. In addition the CRO will shortly accept annual accounts in pdf format.

I am satisfied that all of these initiatives reduce the administrative burden on business in their interaction with the CRO.