Setting Up a Company in Ireland: Documents You Need

The Company Constitution

Incorporating a company in Ireland requires filing specific documents with the Companies Registration Office (CRO). The most important is the company constitution - a single document that replaced the old Memorandum and Articles of Association under the Companies Act 2014. This sets out your company's internal rules: share structure, director powers, decision-making procedures, and winding up provisions.

Shareholder Agreement

While not legally required, a shareholder agreement is practically essential for any company with more than one shareholder. It covers matters you do not want in the public constitution: dividend policy, deadlock resolution, drag-along and tag-along rights, good leaver/bad leaver provisions, and non-compete obligations. Without one, disagreements between shareholders can destroy a business.

Employment Contracts

If you are hiring employees, you need compliant employment contracts within 5 days of their start date. Since January 2026, these must include auto-enrolment pension provisions (My Future Fund). You also need a GDPR-compliant privacy policy if you have a website, and NDAs for any employees or contractors with access to sensitive information.

GDPR Privacy Policy

Every business with a website needs a GDPR privacy policy. The DPC does not distinguish between large and small businesses when it comes to compliance. Your policy must accurately describe your specific data processing activities - copying one from another website is itself a compliance failure, because it will not match what your business actually does.

Getting Started

The fastest way to get all the documents you need is our Business Starter Bundle: company constitution, shareholder agreement, employment contract, freelancer contract, and GDPR privacy policy for EUR 199 (saving EUR 127 vs buying individually). Each document is generated specifically for your situation using our generation engine and solicitor-reviewed templates.