Ireland facing court action over EU rules failure

IRELAND is facing court action because it has failed to implement EU accounting and auditing legislation.

Just 20% of the 2006 Auditing Directive has been brought into Irish law leading to a charge from Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa that the Government has contributed by such negligence to the financial crisis in the country. He has called for a root and branch investigation by the Dáil into the way that EU legislation has been implemented, pointing out that the Government failed to bring into national law legislation on combating corruption in the private sector and the third money laundering directive.

Former finance minister Charlie McCreevy is responsible for the directive that overhauls the auditing profession to increase the quality of audits.

Under it, countries must have systems of external quality assurance and public oversight of the auditors and improve co-operation between regulatory authorities in the EU.

The second piece of legislation deals with accounting and disclosure requirements for companies.

Calling for an investigation into the poor record of Irish compliance with EU legislation, Mr De Rossa said: “Part of the reason Ireland is mired in financial crisis is that, over recent years, not only has the Government continually opposed proposals for proper EU regulation of the banks and financial markets, but it has been one of the worst offenders when it comes to actually implementing the agreed rules at national level.”