A new oversight board which would subject the regulatory regimes of all accountancy bodies to "open, regular and rigorous scrutiny" has been proposed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI).
The institute's deputy president, Mr David Simpson, said such an oversight board would help reassure the public of the accountancy bodies' effectiveness in regulating their affairs.
Such a structure has already been agreed in Britain between the accountancy profession and government, Mr Simpson said. The ICAI is an all-Ireland body.
"The ICAI is satisfied that it has a robust and effective system of regulation. But we have to consider whether the current system is sufficiently accountable and can it be made more so. I believe that a new oversight board which would review the self-regulatory regimes of all recognised accountancy bodies could fill this accountability gap," Mr Simpson said.
The ICAI will be developing this idea in the submission it intends making to the Review Group on Auditing, established in the wake of the report on DIRT compiled by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
"There is no doubt but that the PAC's inquiry and their report were not happy experiences for many facets of Irish business.
However, the contribution which the financial institutions and the accountancy profession have made to the economic wellbeing of this country should not be undervalued."
