The company law section of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is conducting ongoing inquiries into whether Cement Roadstone plc has complied with requirements concerning information on subsidiaries.

Section 16 of the Companies (Amendment) Act 1986 creates an obligation on firms to note subsidiaries or firms in which they have a shareholding exceeding 20 per cent in their annual returns. Alternatively, firms can note such ownerships in special filings to the Companies Registration Office. CRH has 11 operating companies in the Republic which are not noted in its annual reports. It has said it is its strategy to maintain the local identity and management of acquired firms that it retains, the name of the acquired company, and that the ownership of all subsidiary companies is held through legitimate transparent structures.

A CRH spokesman said the group complied with all its obligations regarding the filing of documents with the Companies Registration Office. As CRH had about 600 companies worldwide, it could not list them all in its annual report, he added.