Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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615. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the reason Ireland is one of only four countries, including Belgium, Portugal and China, with audit firms registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, PCAOB, that does not allow PCAOB inspectors examine registered firms; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2710/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority (IAASA) is the competent authority for the purposes of oversight of statutory audit in the State. The EU Audit Directive 2006/43/EC, as amended by Directive 2014/56/EU, sets out the working arrangements that must be put in place between IAASA and other third country competent authorities in order to facilitate inspections by those authorities of audits by Irish audit firms of companies which have issued securities in that third country or which form part of a group issuing statutory consolidated financial statements in that third country. These requirements are currently set out in national legislation in S.I. 312 of 2016 and previously in S.I. 220 of 2010.

I am informed that IAASA has been actively engaged with the US audit oversight body, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) for some time with a view to agreeing the Memorandum of Understanding that is part of the necessary working arrangements to facilitate inspections by the PCAOB of audit firms in Ireland. My Department is also finalising Regulations with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to give effect to the two most recent EU Commission Implementing Decisions on equivalence and adequacy of US audit oversight which provide the basis for continued cooperation between EU and US competent authorities.  

The Memorandum of Understanding is of necessity a detailed document and, once it is in place, it is anticipated that a joint inspection with the PCAOB will take place shortly afterwards.