Interim Company Law Provisions Further Extended

PUBLISHED: 3rd May 2022

Interim Company Law Provisions and Virtual General Meetings extended to 31 December 2022.

The interim period of the Companies (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Covid-19) Act 2020 has been further extended to 31 December 2022 following Government approval this week.

The 2020 Act introduced temporary amendments to the Companies Act 2014 and the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1893 for an “interim period”, to deal with issues arising due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Minister expects that this will be the final extension to the temporary provisions.

Main Features

The main features of the 2020 Act can be summarised as follows:

• General meetings and creditors’ meetings may be held virtually.
• Documents which are required to be executed under seal may be executed in counterpart.
• An increase in the amount at which a statutory demand can be issued from €10/20k to €50k.
• An extension of the examinership process to a total of 150 days (subject to court approval).
• Powers for the Minister to make regulations in respect of amending the operational detail of hybrid and virtual general meetings.

The main provisions in relation to cooperatives include:

• General meetings may be held as hybrid general meetings (where some members attend at designated venue(s)  and others attend virtually) or as fully virtual general meetings.
• Powers for the Minister to make regulations to amend the operational detail of hybrid and virtual general meetings.

The company law proposals on examinership and on creditors’ meetings automatically apply to cooperatives because of previous amendments to the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts in 1978 and 2014

Virtual meetings

The interim provisions allow a company to hold a virtual AGM and EGM without the need to amend its Constitution to permit virtual meetings.  Companies are reminded that where a virtual general meeting is to be held, specified information should inserted to the notice of the meeting as prescribed in the interim provisions.

If you require assistance or need advice in relation the above matters, please get in touch with our experienced Company Secretarial team:

Colm Hanley at chanley@lkshields.ie

Michelle Howe at mhowe@lkshields.ie

Patricia Kelly at pkelly@lkshields.ie 

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