Section 333 - Service on external company

(1) A process or any other document shall be sufficiently served on an external company if

(a) delivered or sent through an electronic address provided by the company to the Registrar or delivered or sent by post to the person last registered as the process agent of the company at the last registered address of that agent, even if the process agent refuses to accept service or the company has ceased to maintain a place of business in the Republic; or

(b) sent by facsimile machine to a telephone number used for the transmission of documents by facsimile at the registered office of the company, or address for service or the head office or principal place of business of the company.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to service of a document,

(a) if the company was struck off the register of external companies under section 340 more than six years previously;

(b) if one person was last registered as process agent and that person is dead or, in the case of a body corporate, dissolved; or

(c) if two or more persons were last registered as process agents and each of those persons is dead, or in the case of a body corporate, dissolved.

(3) Where,

(a) a registration of the name and address of a person as the process agent of an external company has not been effected, or

(b) subsection (1) does not apply by reason of paragraph (b) or

(c) of subsection (2),

a process or any other document shall be sufficiently served on the company if delivered or sent by post to a place of business of the company in the Republic or, if the company has ceased to have a place of business in the Republic, to the registered office or principal place of business of the company in the country of incorporation.

(4) A document to be served by post on an external company shall be posted within a period that will admit of the document being delivered in due course of delivery within the time prescribed for the service of the document.

(5) In proving service, it shall be sufficient to prove that a letter containing the document was properly addressed, prepaid, and posted, whether or not by registered post.

(6) Where it is proved that a document was in fact received by

(a) a local manager or a process agent,

(b) the board of directors of the external company, or

(c) the managing director or Company Secretary of the external company,

the document shall be deemed to have been served on that company although service may not have been effected in accordance with subsections (4) and (5).

(7) This section shall not derogate from the power of a Court to direct how service shall be effected of a document relating to legal proceedings before that Court.