Section 279 of the Companies Act 2014 (and its predecessor,
section 1 of the Companies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009), as
amended, allowed, by way of permissive exemption, certain Irish
holding companies whose securities were listed on US stock
exchanges to use US generally accepted accounting principles
("US GAAP") in the preparation of their
statutory financial statements for a limited period of time,
instead of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or
Irish GAAP which would otherwise be required. The section 279
exemption was due expire for financial years ending after 31
December 2020.
The exemption was originally introduced as international
negotiations on the convergence of US GAAP and IFRS standards were
taking place and in the context of an expectation then held that
the US Securities and Exchange Commission
("SEC") would allow IFRS to be used by
domestic US registrants. The process of convergence was originally
expected to have been
