The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, has moved to close off a loophole that allows youngsters under the age of 18 to act as company directors.

In a parliamentary reply, issued this week, Ms Harney said her Department was drafting legislation to deal with the problem.

She said currently there was no minimum age requirement for company directors in the Republic.

Ms Harney said this was the case even though individuals under 18 were not in a position to sign contracts and were not necessarily able to understand the responsibilities and duties that go with being a director. She said the company law review group had referred to the practice before and called for action to deal with it.

She said the Companies Registration Office (CRO) was not in a position to provide accurate data on the number of "children" acting as company directors because it would involve a detailed examination of all their records.

Ms Harney said the CRO had "no legal basis" to stop such people becoming directors.

The Labour Party's spokesman on Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr Brendan Howlin, said legislation was needed urgently to prevent children sitting on boards. "This seems an extraordinary gap in our company law, which is open to exploitation, given the serious responsibilities and potential liabilities of company directors.

"The appointment of children as company directors exposes children to liabilities that they may not be able to discharge and may allow others to evade their legal responsibilities," he said.

He added that, while there were no figures on the number of under 18s registered as directors of companies, he understood from those familiar with the process of registering directors that the appointment of children was a growing trend.