Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy raised a number of points. I agree the vast majority of practices in the State work well, do not create difficulty and provide a service to individual members of the public and to companies. Self-regulatory bodies the world over, including in this country, tend to move away from this and the idea of self-regulation is seen as something from other times. Most organisations are changing their ways in that regard.

I do not dispute the fact that some of the individuals who are now the source of investigations were investigated a number of years ago and got a clean bill of health. While I am subject to correction, one of those investigations took place as recently as five years ago.

The Competition Authority has considered the profession, which was dealt with in one of the five reports carried out by the authority. That report does not deal with self-regulation but more with issues of competition, numbers and the scale and form of companies, which is not the same area. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is examining this area and what has happened.

The position of other professional bodies is relevant. A number of years ago, the accountancy profession moved to a different administrative system whereby a body was established to examine the profession, and that is working well. While I do not want to suggest the Government has made a decision, because we have not and the matter is under examination, the accountancy profession is an area in which such a system has worked very satisfactorily.

The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform is considering not only recent cases but also the issue of self-regulation.

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