Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 June 2019
287. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation if the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority plans to make public its audit quality inspection reports of public interest entities in view of the fact the results of the inspections have already been shared with the auditors involved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25314/19]
View answerThe Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority (IAASA) is an independent body responsible for the supervision of the auditing and accounting profession and its functions and powers are set out in the Companies Act 2014.
Under the EU Audit Regulation (Regulation (EU) 537/2014), IAASA has direct responsibility for the quality assurance of audits of public-interest entities (‘PIEs’). Public-interest entities (‘PIEs’) are systemically important entities such as credit institutions and insurance undertakings. Entities with securities listed on a regulated main market in the EU are also classified as public-interest entities. IAASA is also responsible for any investigations or sanctions arising as a result of those quality assurance inspections.
By the end of 2018 IAASA had carried out inspections in each of the nine audit firms that carry out statutory audits of PIEs and accordingly fall under its remit under the above Regulation.
IAASA’s Audit Quality Unit has now commenced the second round of inspections of PIE audit firms. The quality control systems of all firms will be inspected in full over the course of the second round.
In November 2018 IAASA issued a public consultation ‘The future publication and grading policy for audit firms that carry out statutory audits of public-interest entities’. The Consultation Paper sets out the purpose of the reports and IAASA’s proposed policy in this regard. Feedback was published in April 2019. IAASA’s consultation and feedback papers on foot of this consultation and its conclusions in this regard are available on the Authorities website at www.iaasa.ie/News/2019/Publication-and-Grading-Feedback-Paper-(1).
It is intended that reports from the second cycle of audit inspections onwards will be published as the system of inspections will have been fully established on a cyclical basis. At this time it is anticipated that such reports will be published during 2020.
As IAASA is independent in the exercise of its functions, I have no direct role in this matter.
