Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)

Under section 15(1)(a) the supervisory authority shall, subject to any limit that the Minister may specify, establish and maintain a reserve fund to be used only for the purposes of performing its functions and exercising its powers under sections 24 and 26. Section 24 refers to the investigation of possible breaches of standards of prescribed accountancy bodies and section 26 to a review of whether accounts comply with Companies Acts.

The fund is intended to deal with those situations, if they arise. No one knows how many such situations may arise in the course of a year. That is the reason for it.