Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 14:

In page 10, between lines 35 and 36, to insert the following:"(9) The costs and fines incurred by the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority as a result of a legal action by a counter-party as a result of the inadequate application of quality assurance standards or not-fit-for-purpose standards shall be aggregated and levied on bodies subject to the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority.".

The purpose of this amendment is to try to divert any damages for faulty accounting, of which I believe we have had buckets full in this country, from the taxpayer to the people who carried it out. The criteria for choosing the five member board in the American system was respect for the public interest and in the interest of shareholders. Our 14 member board is very heavily dominated by the accounting industry. The reason I put this forward as a safeguard is that they should not be able to transfer the burdens of the incompetence of their sector to the taxpayer at large. If there is a judgment, because of inadequate application of quality assurance standards, it should be borne by the industry - I think I have the Minister of State's assurance on that - and not by the general public or the taxpayer.

Currently, to use the jaded phrase, we have been kicking the can down the road and nobody has borne the burden, or certainly no accountants have - in fact, I think they have prospered in the past five years after the way they conducted themselves in 2008. Justice delayed is justice denied. The Minister of State should make it quite clear that the costs of the authority will not be a charge on the public purse or on the general public but on the firms found to have breached and pursued an inadequate application of quality assurance standards.