04-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Carol Tancock named interim chair of The Housing Agency
Ms Tancock, who was an independent, non-executive director of the agency prior to the appointment, joined its board in 2023.
Her appointment as interim chair of the state agency has been confirmed by James Browne, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
Mr Carey was also the chairman of Enterprise Ireland, but resigned from that role too at the same time last month. The agency named board member Jim Woulfe as its interim chair.
Mr Carey resigned from the boards of the two state agencies after his East Coast Bakehouse company remained in breach of company law by failing to file its annual return, including its accounts on time. The company has been in breach of the law for more than 18 months, putting Mr Carey at risk of prosecution.
He pledged last month to file the accounts early in July.
Drogheda-based East Coast Bakehouse sells cookies under its own brand as well as manufacturing private label product for clients including supermarkets. It has a number of high-profile financial backers. Mr Carey said it recently completed a €5m 'growth equity' fundraising. The business, founded in 2015, has racked up substantial losses.
Thousands of companies are typically in breach of the law at any one time in Ireland. While the potential statutory fines and penalties for failing to file returns on time are sizeable, the reality is that few directors are ever prosecuted in Ireland for non-compliance with their relevant legal obligations under the Companies Act.
The Companies Registration Office (CRO) isn't even able to currently undertake the automated strike off of non-compliant companies because of an IT issue that has persisted for more than a year.
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment revealed in May this year that the total cost of the troubled IT platform at the CRO, called Regsys, was €2.9m between 2017 and 2020 when it was implemented. The system was developed by a firm called ERS Limited, according to the Department.
The CRO also spent almost €1.2m last year and more than €313,000 on the system so far this year on support and maintenance. The Department said it could not isolate the specific costs associated with fixing the IT issue that has affected it.
