United Drug has followed the lead of DCC in proposing a vote on its remuneration report as a separate voting item at its upcoming AGM on 9 February. The notice of meeting acknowledges that there is no legal obligation on the company to put such a resolution to shareholders, so this is an ‘advisory’ resolution and is not binding on the company. The company confirmed to Manifest that it viewed the proposing of such a resolution as emerging best practice for Irish companies.

The development follows Manifest's campaign in 2009 seeking the addition of say-on-pay votes at the AGMs of five Irish companies. It is hoped that further Irish companies will introduce such a resolution in 2010 - indeed some of the companies targeted in Manifest's 2009 campaign undertook to review this ahead of their 2010 AGMs.

Neither the Irish Companies Acts nor the Listing Rules of the Irish Stock Exchange require companies to propose their Remuneration Report for shareholder approval. The Irish Stock Exchange previously adopted the UK’S 1998 Combined Code which recommended that directors should consider whether such a resolution should be proposed.