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Overview

Registry

CRO (Companies Registration Office)Official company registry of Ireland
The Companies Registration Office (CRO) is the official registry for all companies and business names in Ireland. Basic company information is accessed directly from the CRO API, while enhanced data (directors, shareholders, share capital) is extracted from filed B1C Annual Return documents through automated document processing.

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Company Identifiers

Irish company registration numbers have no fixed length or leading zeros. They are simply numeric identifiers assigned sequentially by the CRO.

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Search Capabilities

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Data Availability

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Companies

*Extracted from B1C Annual Return filings **Via separate API (not in enhanced profile response)
LTD = Private Company Limited by Shares, DAC = Designated Activity Company, ULC = Private Unlimited Company, PLC = Public Limited Company, CLG = Company Limited by Guarantee

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Business Names

*Extracted from filed documents

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Status Codes

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Activity Codes

Ireland uses NACE Rev. 2 for classifying business activities.
Activity codes are sourced via a separate CRO Open Data API and are not included in the main enhanced profile response. The activities array will be populated by a separate service.

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Address Format

Irish addresses use a line-based structure from the CRO: Example format:

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Address Components

Eircode (Irish postal code) is not always present, particularly for older registrations or rural addresses.

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Implementation Notes

Data Currency: Director, secretary, and shareholder data is extracted from B1C Annual Return filings through document processing. This data reflects the last filed annual return, not real-time changes. Recent appointments, resignations, or share transfers may not be reflected until the next annual return is filed and processed.
Joint Shareholdings: When shares are jointly owned, shareholder names may appear combined in the source data (e.g., “JOHN DOE & JANE DOE”). These are split into separate entries in the API response.
Foreign Registered Bodies: Companies with type code 1178 are foreign entities with an Irish branch or presence. The registrationType field will be “Foreign Registered Body” and registrationTypeDetails will contain the country of origin.

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Representatives

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Capital Types

Share capital data is grouped by share class (e.g., “ORDINARY”, “A ORDINARY”, “PREFERENCE”) with each class including:
  • Total nominal value
  • Currency (typically EUR)
  • Shareholdings with percentage ownership
CLG companies (Companies Limited by Guarantee) and External companies (Foreign Registered Bodies) do not have share capital data, as CLGs have members rather than shareholders, and external companies’ capital is registered in their home jurisdiction.