I move amendment No. 56.
To delete subsection (1) (b) and substitute the following :
(b) he is qualified to be so appointed either as having obtained similar qualifications otherwise than from such a Body or as having obtained adequate knowledge and experience prior to the operative date in the course of his employment by a member of a Body of Accountants recognised for the purposes of paragraph (a), or as having before the operative date practised in the State as an accountant.
The purpose of this amendment is to try to lay down minimum qualifications for persons who will be appointed as the auditors of companies. I recognise, at the outset, that it is not entirely satisfactory to try to lay down professional qualifications in a measure of this sort. On the other hand, the Bill deals generally with company law and one of the objectives of the Bill is to try to secure that proper accounts will be presented, and that these accounts will be audited by persons who are properly qualified.
The practice up to the present, as I understand it, has been to recognise here two bodies—the chartered accountants and the corporate accountants. This section as it is drafted allows the Minister to approve, as qualified for appointment, a person : (a) who must be a member of a body of accountants for the time being recognised for the purposes of the paragraph by the Minister or (b) who is for the time being authorised by the Minister to be so appointed, having obtained similar qualifications otherwise than through such a body or having obtained adequate knowledge and experience prior to the operative date in the course of his employment for the purposes of paragraph (a) or who, as having, before the operative date, practised in the State as an accountant. It is in the last part of the section that I think the weakness lies. We are, of course, all familiar with the fact that quite a number of successful accountants—indeed in some cases senior partners—have practised here without any professional qualification : indeed, some of them are quite eminent. But, we are legislating for a new situation and I think we should either confine the calculation to recognised bodies—whatever they are : I have mentioned the two principal ones—or ensure that a person, before being approved, would have practised in a firm or with a person who was a member of one of these recognised bodies. It is for that reason that I have drafted this amendment to ensure that a person, before being appointed, is qualified as having obtained similar qualifications otherwise than from either of the bodies or having obtained adequate knowledge and experience prior to the operative date in the course of his employment by a member of a body of accountants recognised in paragraph (a) or as having, before the operative date, practised in the State as an accountant.