Mr. T.J. Flanagan:

On managing the transition, one of the further points in our submission is this is a big job of work to be done. Once the committee members do their jobs and we get our new Act, which we will all be delighted to get, there will then be a process by which every existing industrial and provident society, IPS, will have to register as a co-operative society under the new Act. Each will need a new rule book that complies with the new Act and that will take a lot of meetings and work. That is a huge burden large societies can handle in their sleep but for small ones it will be very onerous. We have asked the Department, in considering the mechanics of how we do this, to bear in mind the burdensome nature of that transition process and what will be involved. It is a point well made.

On the audit exemption point, we have a concern around it that reflects what Dr. McCarthy said about the rights of members. We support audit exemption. Audits are expensive and getting more expensive. However, the auditor works for the members. The auditor is the friend of the members who, on their behalf, audits the books of the society. We want to ensure the rights of members are not diminished and so we would like it to be added to a provision for audit exemption that the members must approve that the society is deciding to dispense with an audit and perhaps that it would not do it forever, in that there should be an audit maybe every five years, or at some appropriate juncture.