Parliamentary Question addressed to the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if, in view of the EU’s proposal for a regulation on statutory audits of public interest companies amending Directive 2006/43/EC, he has considered the likely disincentive effect on Foreign Direct Investment and particularly international financial services, considering that Irish subsidiaries of companies based outside the EU may have to appoint auditors other than those employed for their corporate headquarters or for their other international operations, and the mounting number of international studies warning on the negative impact of key elements of Commissioner Barnier’s proposals on audit costs, independence and on audit quality; and if he will make a statement on the matter?

Reply

Officials of my Department are participating in negotiations in EU Council working groups both in respect of the proposal for a Regulation regarding statutory audit of public-interest entities, and the proposal for a Directive on statutory audits, to which it is linked.

The issues referred to by the Deputy are among those which have been raised in the context of the consultation which the Department has undertaken with stakeholders in respect of both draft EU instruments, which is assisting in informing Ireland’s approach to these negotiations.

The Commission proposals were framed following the extensive consultation initiated by it in October 2010 on its Green Paper “Audit Policy: Lessons from the Crisis”.
The negotiations on the proposals are at an early stage, and I believe that the final package of measures adopted should be reasonable and proportionate, and offer demonstrable prospects of successfully addressing the issues at which they are directed.