Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

One of the major problems seems to be the split responsibility of an auditor with regard to the clients and the reporting of a true and fair situation within a company. An important element of that is the ownership of the organisation and the liberalisation of ownership would have an influence over the corporate direction of some of the organisations. There is an old saying that if one wants to find out what a person thinks then one should find out who they work for, to a certain extent, as that would have an influence.

Another issue is members are approaching this from an extremely difficult position. Many of the problems faced by all Members in this present Dáil stem from an era in which auditors partook in the groupthink and herding with other institutions within the financial make-up of the State. If we are to proceed with this, cognisance must be taken of this almost being the foremost issue to be resolved, rather than merely taking the view that matters are not too bad as they are. Does the Government have its own plans to regulate this sector in the near future? I acknowledge there is almost a lack of confidence in Irish society in dealing with such issues ourselves. The view is perhaps such issues should be migrated to a European level. While I believe that where business and functions take place on a transnational basis, there should be some level of transnational regulation, as a State we should not decide we do not have a responsibility to develop better systems of regulation in this area in the future. In addition, Sweden was mentioned as having misgivings with elements of this proposal and that some countries considered it to be disproportionate and perhaps an invasion of national responsibilities. Mr. Houlihan might tease out and reflect back to members some reasons other countries have indicated that.