The Government was reviewing the allocation of consultancy work to major auditing firms, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore told the Dáil.
He said there were very major questions to be asked about the performance of auditors, particularly relating to the signing off of accounts of some of the financial companies and institutions.
Mr Gilmore said there was "an unhealthy concentration of business in a small number of auditing and accounting companies".
The Government was relying less and less on consultancy work, said Mr Gilmore.
The Tánaiste was replying in the Dáil to Independent TD Shane Ross, who said the auditing world was dominated by the “big four”- Price WaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Deloitte & Touche and Ernst & Young.
They were doing consultancy and audit work, resulting in a serious conflict of interest, he claimed, adding: “The big four have been employed, invariably, by the Irish Government to do consultancy work in the case of the banks."
Mr Ross said a draft European regulation had pointed the figure decidedly at auditors who had betrayed trust, and that this was particularly so in the case of the reporting of financial institutions.