Grant Thornton's Corporate Governance Review 2011, the fifth annual edition of this report, examines the extent to which companies listed on the Main Securities Market of the Irish Stock Exchange comply with the disclosure provisions of the Combined Code on Corporate Governance.
As well as assessing levels of compliance with the code and comparing with prior years, this year’s report includes commentary and analysis of the impact of the recently introduced governance codes, particularly the UK Corporate Governance Code and the Irish Corporate Governance Annex.
Some highlights from the review:
- The level of companies claiming full compliance remains low at 26% (2010: 36%, 2009: 51%), as companies chose to take a stricter interpretation and disclose more information on what provisions they have not complied with
- There is a significant decrease in the number of companies reporting that the board is comprised of a majority of independent non-executive directors (down 15% to 62%)
- Only 43% of companies explicitly disclose that their audit committee contains at least one member with both "recent" and "relevant" financial expertise, as required by the code
- Only four companies provided informative descriptions of the work of their nominations committees
- Significant work will need to be done by companies to comply with the new governance requirements by the end of the current financial year
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Press release: Irish listed companies have work to do to comply with new corporate governance code