List of Companies of Ireland - About Companies in Ireland

About Companies in Ireland

Irish companies fall into three categories:

• Private limited companies, which carry the suffix "Limited" (Ltd) or "Teoranta" (Teo), and whose shares are privately held.
• Public limited companies, which carry the suffix "plc" or "cpt" and whose shares may be listed on a stock exchange. Where this is the case, it is noted in this article.
• Company Limited by Guarantee, this type of company has members, not shareholders, as such generally limited to trade associations and not-for-profit bodies.

Companies in the Republic of Ireland must be registered with the Companies Registration Office, and comply with the provisions of the Companies Acts. Companies in Northern Ireland must be registered with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment's Companies Registry. Certain Northern Ireland organisations are dealt with on a UK-wide basis and are dealt with by Companies House.

Some entries on this list may be statutory corporations - a business form governed by a board appointed by an Irish Government minister under a particular piece of legislation - not formally companies as such, but are effectively treated as such and are included on this list as they are usually large business. For more details on this form of governance, see state-sponsored bodies of Ireland.

Some mutual bodies, such as building societies, are also included on this list.

Some entries such as O2 Ireland and Intel Ireland are subsidiaries of foreign companies. These subsidiaries are listed because the Irish economy is significantly dependent on foreign companies in comparison to other nations and these multinational companies are major Irish employers and tax contributors - Intel employs over 5000 people.