Headed paper regulation changes for companies are expected to save more than €13 million annually, as a result of a move by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O’Keeffe, to scrap the need to reprint headed notepaper with new names each time directorships change.
Until recently, company law required firms to scrap their headed paper each time there was a change in one of their directors - a cost amounting to about €13.5 million annually in printing.
The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement has now produced a guidance note stating that directors’ names no longer have to be pre-printed on headed paper. Instead, the names can be included in the footer of the letter template which allows them to appear automatically when each letter is written.
The move is the latest effort by Minister O’Keeffe to “cut out needless costs for businesses and make them more competitive”, as part of the brief of an inter-departmental group of officials from all relevant departments tasked with cutting the red tape burden on business by 25 per cent by 2012.
It is estimated that the administrative cost saving from no longer having to replace headed paper each time directorships change will average €247 annually per company. Approximately 55,000 changes of director occur each year.
Minister O’Keeffe described the move as a “simple and commonsense way to save firms over €13 million”.
“The Government is determined to take costs out of businesses and, since 2007, measures we have implemented have saved small firms some €20 million in red tape overheads. We want to make Ireland a cheaper place to do business and cut needless bureaucracy out of the system,” said Minister O’Keeffe.
Company law, employment law, and health and safety law have been identified as areas in which administrative savings can be achieved.
“I have asked the group to quickly generate more savings areas so that we can continue to cut the costs of doing business in Ireland,” said Minister O’Keeffe.
