Seanad debates

Wednesday, 28 May 2003

Companies (Auditing and Accounting) Bill 2003: Committee Stage.

 

While I have sympathy for the points raised by Senator Quinn, I remind the House of how this issue arose. It did not arise from the audit review group but from a direct instruction in the report of the Committee of Public Accounts. I had the job of explaining the issue to the committee. The late Deputy Jim Mitchell, who chaired the committee, was less than enthusiastic about this aspect of the report and said it did not go far enough. The others central to the debate were Deputy Rabbitte, Deputy Durkan and former Deputy Seán Doherty. If one reads the report and the discussions on it, one will see that they reluctantly accepted this issue and the compliance statement, on which I do not want to anticipate discussion. I want people to understand that is where it came from and that it was not dreamed up. It was a clear direction in the recommended report accepted by both Houses of the Oireachtas.

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