Is this business who they say they are?

Ireland keeps its trade and professional registers in about fifteen separate places. Some of them are legally required, some are voluntary, and for several of the trades people worry about most there is no register at all. There is no single place to look any of this up.

This site is the index that should exist. Find the trade, find out whether registration is actually the law, and go straight to the register that holds it.

• Which register covers which trade

  Electricians, gas installers, builders, estate agents, security installers and the professions. Who holds the register, and whether registration is actually the law.

• Doctors and consultants

  Every doctor practising here must be on the Medical Council register. Why general registration and specialist registration are not the same thing.

• Driving schools and instructors

  Paid instruction is restricted to Approved Driving Instructors. The RSA register is searchable by county and shows every instructor ADI number.

• Religious organisations

  The main churches and religious bodies in Ireland, and the two registers that let you check one: charities and solemnisers.

• Company or business name

  The CRO search is free, tells you who you are really contracting with, and holds the disqualified directors register almost nobody checks.

• VAT number

  How to validate a VAT number, and why a small trader having no VAT number at all is usually nothing to worry about.

Start with the trade, not the county

Every register here is national. There is no Cork register of electricians. Several of them do let you filter by county once you are in the right one, and those are listed on the counties page.

This was a directory once

localbusinesspages.ie listed Irish businesses from 2003 until 2026. Those listings are gone and have not been reproduced, because the data was not ours and most of it was years out of date. There is more on that on the about page.