Officials from the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment are to attend an accountancy body inquiry into possible professional or business misconduct and will have full access to the transcripts.

The inquiry, which will be carried out by the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAI) will hold its first hearing tomorrow week and was set up on foot of the McCracken report. A move by the Minister Ms Mary Harney at the weekend, ended the stand-off between the accountants and the Minister regarding the presence of a Department representative at the hearing.

A spokesman for Ms Harney confirmed last night that Section 192 (2) of the Companies Act, whereby the Department recognises the Institute, is being amended. This will allow Department observers to attend the inquiry and get transcripts of the proceedings.

It is understood that the amendment will also be extended to other accountancy bodies in Ireland. It means that one or more representatives of the Department must be granted unrestricted access to any committee of inquiry established by any of the accountancy bodies.

Although the ICAI is a self-regulatory body, the Department has certain supervisory powers because it grants recogition to the institute's members.

The ICAI's chief executive, Mr Sean Dorgan, said last night that the organisation was convinced that the inquiry, which will be chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Mr John Blayney, "will be a satisfactory inquiry". He said the ICAI was happy that "the Minister could see it from the inside". It is understood that the ICAI never actually refused to allow Department observers attend but argued that there were legal difficulties relating to it.

The ICAI members named in the McCracken report included former Taoiseach Mr Charles Haughey, Dunnes Stores trustee Mr Noel Fox, and Dublin accountancy firm, Oliver Freaney.