Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 16 October 2012

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals: COM (2011) 778 and COM (2011) 779

2:25 pm

Mr. John Moynihan:

It is difficult to speak about a particular case, but things can happen quickly in six months. One is attempting to look into the future. The going concern determination is in place to underpin the basis of valuations used in accounts. It is not an absolute guarantee. If it is not deemed appropriate to use the going concern determination or if the going concern is in doubt, the reaction would be to value a company's assets in the balance sheet on a break-up basis. That is a fairly drastic next step to take. One would be very brave to take that step with a financial institution because one could set off a run on the bank and on other banks, something one would hope to avoid.