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Registering a .ie domain: who can, what proof you need, and whose name it goes in

Anyone can register a .com. A .ie needs a connection to the island of Ireland, shown with one document for an Irish company or a self-employed person with a registered business name, and since 2018 nothing more. The part that causes trouble later is whose name it is registered in.

By Oscar CobbeCurrent as at 29 October 20262 minute read3 sources

The rule: a connection to Ireland

The .ie registry checks every application for a real connection to the island of Ireland. What changed on 21 March 2018 was the other half: applicants no longer have to explain why they want a particular name. The connection to Ireland, and proof of who you are, are still required.

You do not apply to the registry itself. You register through an accredited .ie registrar, the company you pay and manage the domain through, and it sends your application and your document to the registry.

What proof the registry asks for

As the registry's own document page set it out on 29 October 2026, in short:

You are	What the registry asks for
An Irish limited company	Any one item from its list, such as the company's CRO number or Irish VAT number. Companies with an active CRO number have an express route.
Self-employed, trading under a business name	Any one item, such as your RBN number (your registered business name) or an Irish VAT number. Without one, separate evidence of your connection to Ireland.
An individual registering your own name	Any one item from the list, such as an Irish passport or a Public Services Card.
A business based outside Ireland	Two things: evidence that you sell to customers or businesses on the island of Ireland, and proof of who you are commercially, such as a certificate of incorporation.

Register it in your own name

Whoever is named as the holder controls the domain: where it points, who can renew it, and whether it can be moved. A domain registered by a web designer in the designer's name, on the designer's account, leaves the business asking permission to change its own email.

Register it in the business's name, on an account the business can sign in to, and give a web designer access to it, not ownership of it. The sites we build end with the code and the domain handed over in the client's name.

The same domain sends your email, and its DNS holds the records that decide whether forged mail in your name is refused: what SPF, DKIM and DMARC decide.

The domain is also your email

Whoever controls the domain controls its email records too, including the ones that decide whether email forged in your name is refused.

What it costs

The registry does not publish a retail price; each registrar sets its own, for the first year and for renewals, and the two can differ. Compare the renewal price, since that is the one you pay every year after. Our website cost guide puts the domain alongside the other running costs of a site.

Sources

Free, and no account needed

Is the email on your domain protected?

Your domain also sends your email. The free check reads its SPF, DKIM and DMARC records and says whether forged email in your name would be refused.

Run the free check

A website, with the domain in your name

A landing page or a full site that loads fast on a phone and gets every enquiry to you, with the code and the domain handed over to you, in your name.

See the Websites page

Who wrote this

Oscar Cobbe · Founder, FourWinds Digital

Writes and maintains the legal explainers on this site, and does the compliance work behind them. Every date and article number here is checked against the legislation itself before it is published, and each article shows the date it was last checked.

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