Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I do not support the amendment. The primary objective of the Companies Bill is to be business-friendly and to reduce red tape or unnecessary regulation where possible. Supporting this amendment would result in the introduction of an onerous regulation which would disproportionately affect business and will fail to adequately address the cardinal problem which the accountancy bodies allude to. New regulations should only be introduced where there is clear evidence of market failure or very damaging consumer harm. That has not been established factually as being the position here.

We must bear in mind that it is also possible that new layers of regulation could also stultify further growth and innovation. When the matter was reviewed by the Department at the time of drafting, the conclusion was there was no case for introducing a system of regulation for the profession generally. On the contrary, it was felt that introducing such a system would put at risk the flexibility of the profession and its ability to respond to client needs, be it in traditional areas such as tax advice or management accounts, or in emerging fields such as succession planning.

Regulation could also stultify further growth and innovation. Having examined the issue from the standpoint of the principles of better regulation, the Competition Authority concluded there was no public interest case requiring legal protection of the term "accountant". That is the Government position.