Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Fianna Fáil supports the transposition into Irish domestic law of the Companies (Accounting) Bill 2016, which implements a 2013 EU directive. I accept that the current Minister inherited this Bill midstream but it is a damning indictment of successive Governments that this Bill was only published in August of last year, three years after the EU accounting directive was finalised during the Irish Presidency of the EU in 2013. Ireland has badly missed the deadline for transposition, which was 20 July 2015, and this has caused a lot of angst in the accounting community. It is also a source of dissatisfaction for small and medium businesses. The directive states that the new rules must apply for the financial year beginning on or after 1 January 2016 at the latest. I welcome the clarification from the Department that there will be early application of the Bill's provisions before it is enacted, thereby allowing companies to apply the provisions in the financial year beginning 1 January 2015. According to Chartered Accountants Ireland, the delays have caused difficulties for many small and micro companies in Ireland in meeting their financial reporting requirements.

The EU directive was enacted in the UK in 2015 and I would like the Minister to explain why there has been such a delay here. I know that the Bill was kicked around for quite a while before the current Minister took up her position and in fairness to her, she has fielded calls and dealt with queries on the Bill. That said, I ask her to explain why this issue was not dealt with in 2015. This has put Irish small and medium enterprises at a disadvantage because at present, the qualifying thresholds are not as set out in the directive. While Fianna Fáil Members support the Bill, we are not happy with the delay and I ask the Minister to explain it to the House.