887. (1) The Minister shall maintain and administer an office or offices in the State at such places as the Minister thinks fit for the purposes of—

(a) the registration of companies under this Act, and

(b) the performance of the other functions under this Act expressed to be performable by the Registrar.

(2) A reference in this Act to the register (where the context is not that of a register to be kept by a company or other body) is a reference to, as appropriate—

(a) the register to be kept by the Registrar (which the Registrar is empowered by this subsection to keep) in which notices or other documents, information or things delivered in pursuance of this Act to the Registrar are to be registered or recorded (and in which, in particular, in the case of a registration of a company, the fact of the company’s incorporation is to be disclosed), or

(b) the particular register that a provision of this Act requires the Registrar to keep for a special purpose,

but any such register as is mentioned in paragraph (b) shall, for the purposes generally of this Act, be regarded as forming part of the first-mentioned register.

(3) The Minister may appoint a registrar (who shall be known as the “Registrar of Companies”) and such assistant registrars as he or she thinks necessary for any of the purposes referred to in subsection (1), and may make regulations with respect to their duties and may remove any persons so appointed.

(4) The Minister may direct a seal or seals to be prepared for the authentication of documents required for or connected with any of the purposes referred to in subsection (1).

(5) A person appointed under section 368 of the Act of 1963 before the commencement of this section and who holds office immediately before such commencement (and, in particular the person mentioned in subsection (6)) shall continue in office for the unexpired period of his or her term unless he or she sooner retires, resigns or dies or is removed from office.

(6) The person referred to in subsection (5) is the person who holds the office bearing the title “Registrar of Companies” and that person shall continue to be known by that title for so long as that person continues to hold office in accordance with that subsection.

(7) The electronic gazette maintained by the Registrar before the commencement of this section and known as the “Companies Registration Office Gazette” shall continue to be maintained by the Registrar and is referred to in this Act as the “CRO Gazette”.

(8) Any act referred to in subsection (4) of section 368 of the Act of 1963 which, before 21 December 1999, was done by—

(a) an assistant registrar appointed under subsection (2) of that section, or

(b) any other person employed in the office of the Registrar to perform generally duties under any enactment referred to in that subsection (4),

shall be valid and be deemed always to have been valid as if the Minister had directed under that subsection (4) that such an act was to be done to or by such an assistant registrar or such other person (including in cases where the existing registrar of joint stock companies (or his or her successor) was not absent).

(9) Any act required or authorised by—

(a) this Act,

(b) the Limited Partnerships Act 1907, or

(c) the Registration of Business Names Act 1963,

to be done to or by the Registrar, the registrar of joint stock companies or a person referred to in the enactment as “the registrar”, as the case may be, may be done to or by a registrar or assistant registrar appointed under subsection (3), a person continued in office by virtue of subsection (5) or any other person so authorised by the Minister.