Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 25 September 2013
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform
Matters Relating to the Economy: Discussion with Governor of Central Bank
3:30 pm
Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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That is grand. The answer to my question is "Yes". This work has been given to KPMG, which audited Irish Nationwide Building Society, and to Ernst & Young, which audited Anglo Irish Bank. KPMG was recently replaced as AIB's auditors. It has been reported that it is now checking the loan book as well. Ernst & Young previously audited EBS, which is now part of AIB. It has been reported that Ernst & Young is carrying out the test for AIB, part of which it audited. Ernst & Young is currently being sued over its auditing of Anglo Irish Bank. Considering the legacy issues relating to the banking collapse and the fact these firms previously audited these banks, would it not have been better to look outside Ireland for a team of auditors, as we did previously when we engaged BlackRock International? The real point is that we need to ensure we do not make the same mistakes we made before now. Is it really credible to allow institutions that were tied into our banking collapse to carry out this extremely important work?