Legal

Analysis: How a ‘comical’ new law makes it impossible to find out who owns what

Our legal affairs correspondent Catherine Sanz found herself at a dead end when looking to find out important information due to a new Irish law

Now, largely due to an Irish law dubbed ‘pathetic’ by a leading company lawyer, public access to the central register of beneficial ownership has been effectively shut down

A few weeks ago, while trying to find out who owns two companies at the top of a well-known Irish business empire, I could get no further than proving that the companies owned each other.

I might have a strong idea of who the beneficial owner of the firms is, but I can’t prove it because of a new law that shields this basic information from the public.

It is not just journalistic intrigue that ...