Firms to save €13m in printing costs as new notepaper rule is scrapped - Minister O’Keeffe

14 November 2010

Firms 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 TD, to scrap the need to reprint headed notepaper with new names each time directorships change.

Until recently, firms understood company law to require them 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 produced a guidance note to let firms know 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.

An inter-departmental group of officials from all relevant Departments has been tasked with cutting the red tape burden on business by 25pc by 2012.

A measurement of the administrative cost that might arise from the need to replace headed paper each time directorships change found that firms could each save €247 annually.

It is estimated that around 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’.

‘Improved competitiveness and better regulation are key to the protection and creation of jobs across the economy.

‘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 need to make sure that when the State intersects with businesses it is cheaper, faster and more efficient.

‘We want to make Ireland a cheaper place to do business and cut needless bureaucracy out of the system,’ said Minister O’Keeffe.

The high-level group on business regulation, set up in 2007, is tackling specific red tape issues arising from business workshops and submissions, as well as suggestions fed in directly by the business organisations on the group.

Since 2007, it has tackled almost 70 red tape issues and 38 of them have been brought to finality to the satisfaction of the business members.

The group uses the International Standard Cost Model to measure red tape costs.

It has identified Company Law, Employment Law and Health and Safety Law 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 without damaging the policy goals of the regulations underpinning them,’ said Minister O’Keeffe.

ENDS

Bernard Mallee, Press Adviser to Minister Batt O'Keeffe, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, on Tel: +353 1 631 3944, Mobile: +353 87 9173022, Email: bernard.mallee@deti.ie