Electronic signatures in Ireland

Two laws side by side

Ireland applies two sets of rules at once:

• The Electronic Commerce Act 2000 (No. 27 of 2000), in force since September 20, 2000. Information "shall not be denied legal effect, validity or enforceability solely on the grounds that it is wholly or partly in electronic form" (s 9), and an electronic contract shall not be denied legal effect, validity or enforceability solely because it is electronic or was concluded by electronic communication (s 19(1)).
• The eIDAS Regulation, which applies directly in every EU member state: an electronic signature "shall not be denied legal effect and admissibility as evidence in legal proceedings solely on the grounds that it is in an electronic form or that it does not meet the requirements for qualified electronic signatures" (Article 25(1)), and a qualified electronic signature has "the equivalent legal effect of a handwritten signature" (Article 25(2)).

The 2000 Act defines an electronic signature as "data in electronic form attached to, incorporated in or logically associated with other electronic data and which serves as a method of authenticating the purported originator" (s 2). Its definitions follow the 1999 EU directive that eIDAS replaced, and eIDAS says references to that directive are read as references to eIDAS (Article 50(2)). Electronic signatures in the European Union covers eIDAS in detail.

The consent rule

Where a law requires or permits a signature, an electronic signature may be used (s 13(1)), with one condition that depends on who receives it:

• Given to a private person or business: "if the person to whom the signature is required or permitted to be given consents to the use of an electronic signature" (s 13(2)(b)).
• Given to a public body: if the body consents, it may require particular technical standards, such as an advanced electronic signature or a qualified certificate, provided its requirements are public, objective, transparent, proportionate and non-discriminatory (s 13(2)(a)).

Nothing in the Act requires anyone to use electronic form, and a person can set reasonable requirements for how they accept electronic signatures (s 24). A line in the agreement saying the parties agree to sign it electronically is a simple way to record that consent.

Signature tiers

Tier	Where it is defined	What it requires	What it does in Ireland
Electronic signature	2000 Act s 2; eIDAS Article 3(10)	Electronic data that authenticates the person who made it	Usable where a signature is required or permitted, with consent (s 13); not inadmissible for being electronic (s 22)
Advanced electronic signature	2000 Act s 2; eIDAS Article 26	Uniquely linked to and capable of identifying the signatory, created with means under the signatory's sole control, and linked to the data so any later change is detectable	A public body may require it (s 13(2)(a))
Advanced electronic signature based on a qualified certificate	2000 Act ss 14 and 16	An advanced signature backed by a qualified certificate	The only electronic route for a signature that must be witnessed, or a document that must be under seal
Qualified electronic signature	eIDAS Articles 3(12) and 25(2)	An advanced signature made with a qualified signature creation device and based on a qualified certificate	The legal effect of a handwritten signature, recognized across the EU

Documents outside the Act, or with their own form

The Act's main rules (ss 12 to 23) are without prejudice to the law on (s 10(1)):

1. wills, codicils and other testamentary instruments, trusts, and enduring powers of attorney;
2. how an interest in real property, including a lease, is created, acquired, disposed of or registered, "other than contracts (whether or not under seal) for the creation, acquisition or disposal of such interests";
3. affidavits and statutory or sworn declarations;
4. the rules, practices and procedures of courts and tribunals.

Since 2022, those rules also apply to how an interest in registered land is created, acquired, disposed of or registered (S.I. No. 55 of 2022, reg 3). Unregistered land stays outside them.

Other laws set their own form:

• Wills. A will must be signed by the testator, with the signature made or acknowledged "in the presence of each of two or more witnesses, present at the same time" (Succession Act 1965, s 78).
• Deeds. An individual's deed must be signed "in the presence of a witness who attests the signature", and an Irish company executes a deed under its seal, as its articles provide (Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009, s 64).
• Witnessed signatures and seals, electronically. A witnessing requirement is met electronically only if both the signer and the witness use an advanced electronic signature based on a qualified certificate, the document says it must be witnessed, and the recipient consents (s 14). A seal requirement is met only if the document says it must be under seal and carries such a signature, again with consent (s 16).
• Counterparts. A contract or deed may be executed in counterparts, which "are to be treated as a single document" (Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020, s 32).

Proving an electronic signature

• Admissibility. The rules of evidence can't deny admissibility to an electronic signature "on the sole ground that the signature is in electronic form, or is not an advanced electronic signature, or is not based on a qualified certificate" (s 22), and eIDAS gives the same protection (Articles 25(1) and 46).
• Business records. In civil proceedings, a record "compiled in the ordinary course of business shall be presumed to be admissible as evidence of the truth of the fact or facts asserted" in it, when it meets the conditions of the 2020 Act (s 13), which may help admit a signing platform's records.
• No presumption. The 2000 Act gives no presumption that a simple or advanced signature is authentic; only a qualified signature has handwritten effect (eIDAS Article 25(2)).
• Originals and retention. Keeping a document electronically in place of an original or a paper record needs "a reliable assurance as to the integrity of the information" from the time it was first generated in its final form, and it must stay readily accessible (ss 17 and 18).

How to make an electronic signature hold up

1. Check section 10 first. Wills, trusts, enduring powers of attorney, affidavits, unregistered land conveyancing and court procedure follow their own law.
2. Record consent to signing electronically, ideally in the agreement itself.
3. Use a method that identifies each signer and detects changes.
4. Keep the signed record with its integrity protected, where every party can produce it.

Where Attest fits

Under Irish law, Attest signatures are electronic signatures (2000 Act s 2; eIDAS Article 3(10)), the base tier. They are not qualified signatures, and Attest doesn't claim the advanced tier. Nor are they advanced signatures based on a qualified certificate, the form Irish law asks for where a signature must be witnessed or sealed. For everyday contracts such as client agreements, statements of work, NDAs, offer letters and vendor agreements, each signature carries the evidence a court weighs:

What the law looks at	What Attest records
Authenticating the originator (s 2)	Each signature is made with a passkey registered to the signer's email address. A passkey is a cryptographic key only the signer controls, unlocked with Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello or the device PIN, and it must confirm the signer is present and verified. Attest confirms control of the email address and the passkey, not a government ID
Intent to sign	The signer reviews the document, and their passkey signs a statement that begins "I have reviewed and I sign", naming the document by its fingerprint. Attest checks each signature against the passkey's public key before recording it
Integrity (ss 17 and 18)	The statement includes the SHA-256 fingerprint of the exact document and of the signer's entries, and the signed state is anchored on the Horizen public blockchain. Change one byte and verification fails
A record to produce	Every party downloads the same sealed PDF: the signed pages, with a "Signed with Attest" stamp on each signature and a seal line at the foot of every page, a certificate of completion, the audit trail up to completion and a "Verify it yourself, without us" page, with the full evidence, the original document and a standalone verifier attached inside

A fingerprint (SHA-256 hash) is a short code calculated from a file's contents that changes if a single byte changes. The open-source verifier inside the copy runs in any browser without any Attest service and checks each signer's passkey signature, the original document, the pages you see and Attest's anchored record on Horizen. As with any evidence, the court decides how much weight it carries.

For a will, a trust, an enduring power of attorney, an affidavit or statutory declaration, a deed that needs a witness or a seal, or unregistered land, use the form that law requires.

Every document is end-to-end encrypted, so Attest can't read it. Signers need no account and never pay, and anyone can verify a signed copy for free at attest.datahubz.com/verify. Your first 2 documents are free, in total, then the Signing plan is $5 a month for 20 documents.