Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 13:

In page 41, line 13, to delete “Chapter 3.”.” and substitute “Chapter 3.”.

This amendment, together with amendment No. 14, is tabled to clarify matters to do with the IAASA’s obligation to communicate certain information to the Committee of European Auditing Oversight Bodies, CEAOB. Amendment No. 13 is purely technical to permit amendment No. 14 to be made. Amendment No. 14 inserts five new subsections into the new section 936B which is concerned with the matters that the IAASA must communicate to the CEAOB. The EU audit directive requires the IAASA to communicate immediately to the CEAOB certain sanctions imposed on statutory auditors or audit firms or directors of public interest entities. As some of these sanctions may have been imposed by the recognised accountancy bodies, the IAASA will rely on those bodies for this information.

Accordingly, amendment No. 14 inserts a new subsection (3) to clarify that a recognised accountancy body must inform the IAASA immediately of any temporary prohibition imposed by it on a statutory auditor or audit firm that prohibits it from carrying out audits or signing audit reports, and from performing functions in audit firms or public interest entities. Amendment No. 14 also inserts a new subsection (4) which clarifies that there is a similar obligation on the IAASA to submit this information onwards to the CEAOB immediately. As well as this urgent type of information, the EU audit directive also requires the IAASA to provide aggregated information annually on all sanctions and measures imposed under the EU audit directive for publication in the CEAOB’s annual report. This amendment therefore inserts a new subsection (5) to clarify that a recognised accountancy body must also give the IAASA annually all such equivalent sanctions and measures it has imposed. Similarly, the amendment inserts a new subsection (6) which clarifies that there is a like obligation on the IAASA to submit this information onwards to the CEAOB as soon as may be. Finally, the amendment inserts a new subsection (7) to clarify that with regard to sanctions in the case of the recognised accountancy bodies, these are the sanctions imposed by them on statutory auditors who are members of that body or in respect of whom the body has been designated oversight functions.

Amendment No. 23 is technical and related. It inserts a cross reference to the EU directive to clarify that the obligation on recognised accountancy bodies to ensure that they can impose penalties on auditors includes the imposition of these temporary prohibitions as provided for in Article 30a(1)(c) and (e) of the directive.