Phoenix companies, which arise from the ashes of insolvent companies that have ceased trading, will come under greater scrutiny from the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, an Oireachtas committee was told yesterday.

Addressing the Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business, the director of corporate enforcement, Paul Appleby, said additional staff hired this year would be employed to crack down on such practices.

"I am anxious to invest more resources in investigating the complex or difficult cases and in tackling areas of persistent misconduct like phoenix-type company practices. These areas by their nature require commitment, expertise and time," Mr Appleby said.

He welcomed the decision by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to provide his office with eight new staff this year.

"These new staff will be assigned to increase our existing work in those priority areas," he told the committee.

While market research undertaken by his office showed that 74 per cent of company directors and 95 per cent of accountants and liquidators believed that the company law compliance environment had improved in the past five years, Mr Appleby said there were a number of areas that were in need of closer examination.

"While these results are positive, there are areas of our remit which need, in my view, greater attention," he said.

"For instance, I want to devote more resources to our compliance work, particularly in the SME sector and in other areas like property management companies, where various stakeholders require a basic understanding of the law if the companies are to perform well."

Mr Appleby said his office had secured the conviction of 220 companies, company directors and others over the past five years.