Mr. Tim Bush:

The first thing that is anomalous is the extent to which the UK and Ireland were intertwined within the FRC structure. The objective of the FRC was to oversee the professions, despite the fact that in Ireland things operate on pre-1920s boundaries. The North and the South are treated as one and, therefore, the UK and Ireland are treated as one. There was the bizarre anomaly that the Auditing Practices Board, whose chairman is appointed by the Secretary of State in London, was issuing guidance on how to audit the Central Bank of Ireland. It is astonishing to see these pieces of paper coming from London telling auditors in another state how its central bank should be audited. It is quite remarkable. Some of that is being pulled out, but there are still anomalies whereby things happening in London are having a direct effect in Ireland without any real sense of accountability. One of the reasons I wrote to the late Brian Lenihan when I was on the urgent issues task force is that I was aware I was on a committee that was affecting two jurisdictions and I thought it was only right that I showed a degree of accountability to both states rather than just the one in which I happened to be born and lived.