Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of this new section is to facilitate the exemption of a specific category of captive insurers and re-insurers (of insurance-reinsurance companies) from the obligation under Article 41 of Directive 2006/43/EC to have an audit committee. Captive insurance is considered to be inherently an exercise in self-insurance by a corporation and as such the inherent risk profile of most captive insurers is significantly different from other insurers thereby removing the need for an audit committee. An obligation on such an entity to have an audit committee is not considered to serve any real purpose, and thus places an undue and significant demand on these undertakings.