The Companies Registration Office (CRO) and the Land Register administered by Tailte Éireann are the two primary official sources for establishing control over an asset in Ireland. Both are accessible to foreign applicants. Both carry defined access costs. The ceiling of what the sources allow is stated before payment.
Control over an Irish asset runs through two parallel record systems. Corporate control — who holds shares, who sits on the board, what charges encumber the company — is established through the CRO. Property control — who holds title, what mortgages and burdens are registered — is established through the Land Register at landdirect.ie. Neither system is complete without the other.
Corporate registerCompanies Registration Office (core.cro.ie): basic company data free of charge; company printout €3.50; filed document image €2.50; card payment accepted, accessible to foreign applicants. Source: CRO · extracted 2026-03-20 Land and title registerTailte Éireann / landdirect.ie: map search free; plain copy folio €5, instant delivery; certified copy (court or bank use) €40, 24-hour delivery. Source: Tailte Éireann · extracted 2026-03-20 Coverage levelLevel A: both registers return named parties, registered interests and filed documents at the document level. Bulk re-useCRO per-document retrieval is permitted for reports. Bulk re-use requires a CRO licence at a separate commercial rate. Reports draw only per-document extracts.The CRO holds the statutory record for every company incorporated in Ireland. A company printout costs €3.50 and returns the registered name, company number, registered office, directors, secretary and current status. Filed document images cost €2.50 each and include annual returns, financial statements, and instruments of charge.
The shareholder register — the list of members with shareholdings — is filed as part of the annual return. For a private limited company, the most recent annual return shows the members as at the return date. Changes between filing dates are not visible in the register until the next return is filed.
Charges over company assets are registered in the CRO charges register. A registered charge names the chargeholder, the date of creation and the assets covered. Satisfaction of a charge must also be filed; an unsatisfied charge in the register does not confirm the debt remains outstanding, but it does confirm the charge has not been formally released.
The CRO does not hold a beneficial ownership register accessible through the standard document retrieval path. The Register of Beneficial Ownership (RBO) is a separate statutory register. Access conditions for the RBO are subject to verification against current access rules before any report drawing on that register is issued.
Source: Companies Registration Office · extracted 2026-03-20
The Land Register at landdirect.ie holds title folios for registered land in Ireland. A folio identifies the registered owner by name, describes the property, and lists burdens — mortgages, rights of way, covenants and other encumbrances — registered against the title.
A plain copy folio costs €5 and is delivered instantly. It is sufficient to establish the registered owner and the burdens on the title at the date of retrieval. A certified copy costs €40 and is delivered within 24 hours; it carries the official seal and is accepted by courts and financial institutions.
Map search on landdirect.ie is free of charge. A folio number identified from the map can be used to order the folio directly. Tailte Éireann has publicly noted that third-party intermediary sites charge €30–50 for a folio available directly from the official source for €5.
The Land Register covers registered land. Unregistered land is recorded in the Registry of Deeds, a separate system. A property that has not been compulsorily registered may still be held under title deeds rather than a folio. The report identifies which system applies to the specific property before retrieval.
Source: Tailte Éireann / landdirect.ie · extracted 2026-03-20
The two registers answer different questions. The CRO establishes who controls the corporate vehicle. The Land Register establishes who holds title to the physical asset and what encumbrances attach to it. A complete picture of control over an Irish asset requires both.
The CRO returns the registered position. It does not show beneficial ownership through the standard document retrieval path. Where a company is held through a chain of intermediate entities, the CRO shows the immediate registered shareholder. The chain above that level requires retrieval from the registers of each intermediate jurisdiction.
The annual return shows members as at the return date. A transfer of shares executed after the last return date and before the next will not appear in the register until the next return is filed. The gap between filing dates is typically up to twelve months.
The charges register shows registered charges. A charge created but not yet registered, or a charge satisfied but not yet formally released, will not reflect the current position accurately. The register is a record of filed instruments, not a real-time statement of indebtedness.
The Land Register covers registered land. Where title has not been registered, the folio does not exist. Establishing title to unregistered land requires examination of title deeds through the Registry of Deeds, which operates on a different retrieval logic.
The RBO (Register of Beneficial Ownership) is a separate statutory register. Its access conditions are subject to current regulatory rules. No report drawing on RBO data is issued without prior verification of access conditions.
Neither register shows the economic terms of any transaction — the price paid, the consideration for a charge, or the terms of any shareholders' agreement. Those instruments are not filed in either register.