Brendan Kenneally (Fianna Fail)

If it was just over the county boundary, I would have no problem with it. However, my point is that it should not be located in Dublin. We must get away from that practice.

I welcome the provision in section 34 to correct a previous anomaly whereby a shareholder could be an auditor. I was not aware of this. Even if a person has only a small holding, there would still be a conflict of interest and it is only right that the anomaly should be eliminated. The customary arrangement in an accountancy practice has been that if one of the partners had an involvement with a company, the accounts of that company would be signed off by another partner in the firm. However, that is not at arm's length and I wonder if the arrangement would be outlawed. We have to be very careful in that regard.

There are other points I had hoped to make but, due to shortage of time, I will confine myself to commenting on section 42 which is important in relation to the independence of auditors where substantial accountancy work is undertaken. In my experience, I visited companies every two months in the course of which I prepared VAT returns, wrote up their cheque journals and cash books and, at the end of the year, did their audit. I welcome the provision to introduce a measure of independence in that regard. The Bill is a step forward and I commend it to the House.