A "stricter test" will be applied in future to companies applying to the courts for examinership under amendments to company law approved yesterday by the Select Committee for Enterprise and Small Business.

Under the new regulations, a company must show that it is viable by providing an independent auditor's report with its petition to the court for examinership. The regulations will also give creditors a right of appearance in court before dismissal or approval of an application for an examinership can take place. This is seen as reflecting the reality that creditors often have to bear the brunt of the pain of an examinership.

These and other amendments to the Companies Act 1990 follow recommendations by the Company Law Review Group whose report was published in 1995. Among the objectives is to prevent companies petitioning for an examinership simply to avoid liquidation.

The committee also approved changes in the legal threshold of turnover for companies which submit unaudited annual accounts.

These will be raised to £250,000, from £100,000, but the balance sheet figure (£1.5 million ) and the maximum number of employees (50) will remain unchanged under the regulations introduced by Mr Noel Tracey, Minister of State for Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

Concern about the misuse of Irish registered non-resident (IRNR) companies has given rise to new regulations designed to close down "brass plate" companies widely believed to be damaging the image of the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin. Some 50 IRNRs were investigated by Interpol in the past year, Fine Gael TD, Ms Nora Owen, told the committee It will become a precondition of IRNR incorporation to define the economic activity which the company plans to carry out in the State and at least one company director will have to be an Irish citizen or alternatively a £20,000 bond can be maintained by the company.

Exemptions to these rules will apply to multinationals whose economic activities are "real and continuous" and whose bona fides have already been cleared by other State authorities such as the IDA.

These amendments to IRNR regulation are counterparts to changes to the tax laws introduced in the Finance Act 1998.