A counterparty report assembled before signing a shareholders agreement in Ireland answers one question first: who actually controls the company, and what can a shareholder enforce against that person. The registered layer at the Companies Registration Office names directors and shareholders on record. It does not name the person who instructs them.
Control in Irish private companies is often exercised through nominee arrangements, layered holding structures, or side agreements that sit outside the register entirely. The report maps what the official sources confirm, states at which point the chain stops, and identifies the gap between registered control and effective control before any commitment is made.
The Companies Registration Office (CRO) holds the statutory register for all Irish companies. A company printout costs €3.50 and returns the current registered address, directors, secretary, and share capital. Each filed document — annual return, financial statements, change of director, allotment of shares — is available as a separate image at €2.50 per document.
Foreign applicants can retrieve documents by card without a local account or national identifier. There is no registration requirement for per-document access.
The register records the legal shareholder of each share class. It does not record who gave instructions to that shareholder, who funded the acquisition, or whether a separate agreement redistributes economic rights. Those arrangements exist, if at all, in private contracts not filed with the CRO.
Filed financial statements are available for companies that have submitted them. Unlimited companies and certain exempt categories are not required to file accounts. Where accounts are absent from the register, the report notes the exemption category and the last period for which a filing exists.
Source: Companies Registration Office · core.cro.ie · extracted 2026-03-20
Tailte Éireann maintains the Land Registry and the Registry of Deeds. A plain copy folio — the standard title record for registered land — costs €5 and is returned instantly through landdirect.ie. A certified copy, required for court proceedings or bank submissions, costs €40 and is issued within 24 hours.
A folio shows the registered owner, the nature of the title (freehold or leasehold), and any burdens or charges registered against the property. It does not show the beneficial owner where title is held on trust, nor does it show unregistered interests that have not been lodged as burdens.
Tailte Éireann has published a direct warning about third-party websites charging €30–50 for a folio available at €5 from the official source. The cost of a counterparty report reflects the path removed — identifying the correct folio number, matching it to the company or individual under review, retrieving the document in a format usable outside Ireland, and presenting it alongside the corporate layer.
Source: Tailte Éireann · landdirect.ie · extracted 2026-03-20
The CRO returns per-document images within minutes of a card payment. The constraint is not the registry — it is identification. Locating the correct company number, cross-referencing name variants, and tracing a chain of holding companies each requires a separate retrieval step.
A single-entity report with no holding structure and current filings can be assembled in one to two working days. A report covering a multi-layer structure, tracing each intermediate entity, and cross-referencing land register folios typically requires three to five working days. The Extended tier adds a second-layer review of each entity identified in the primary chain.
The CRO shows who is registered as a shareholder. It does not show who holds the beneficial interest in those shares. Ireland introduced a Central Register of Beneficial Ownership of Companies (RBO) under the 2019 European Union (Anti-Money Laundering) Regulations. Access to the RBO for third-party verification purposes is subject to conditions that have evolved following the CJEU ruling in joined cases C-37/20 and C-601/20. The current access regime for the RBO is confirmed at the time of each instruction; it is not assumed to be open.
The land register shows the registered title holder. It does not show a beneficial owner where property is held on trust, nor does it show an equitable interest that has not been registered as a burden.
Filed financial statements, where present, show the figures as submitted. They do not show related-party transactions that fall below the disclosure threshold, nor do they show off-balance-sheet arrangements.
The report states, at each point in the chain, which source was consulted, what it returned, and where the chain stops. The ceiling of what the sources allow is stated before payment.