Ms Helen Hall:

I will answer that question first and others might like to add to it. The proposals on the table will expand the current definition. As soon as an entity is expanded within that definition, it will come under our direct supervision. In some cases this may have unintended consequences, for example, we estimate that if we were to take over the quality assurance of auditors of public interest entities immediately, there would be eight firms involved. That is the basis on which we would have submitted our plan to Mr. Houlihan. If, for example, credit unions were deemed to be public interest entities, one could add at least another 100 firms. That was the figure I received when I last spoke to people in the Central Bank about credit unions. That is one example of how the scope of our work will change. Do we risk the unintended consequences of perhaps applying a higher level of regulation to firms that in Ireland are perhaps not of public interest? The other interesting part of the proposals is that in the current eighth directive there is an option to add to it, which is very important for each jurisdiction. In our jurisdiction we might be concerned about an entity on which we want to impose regulation but that option is no more. The question being debated in the European Union is whether we should leave member states with the ability to add public interest entities.