An independent Oversight Board will be established to supervise the regulation of accountants by the various accountancy bodies. It will be independent of Government and the accountancy profession and will have powers backed by legislation to supervise investigations, discipline and appeals arrangements within each body. It will be able to impose sanctions where supervisory failures occur, including a £100,000 fine.

The board will comprise eight members, with no more than two from the accountancy profession. It is expected to have a budget of £1.5 million, 60 per cent of which will be financed by the accountancy bodies. The State will contribute the remaining 40 per cent.

A liaison group will be formed to ensure communication and co-operation between the Oversight Board, the Central Bank, the Revenue Commissioners and the office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement.

The accountancy bodies should continue to determine and impose sanctions on members where wrong doing is established but the level of fines must be raised, if necessary with statutory backing. Details of sanctions will be published in national and local media.

All accountancy firms must register with one of the recognised accountancy bodies.

The Companies Act should be amended to require the annual audit reports for unlimited companies to be filed with the Registrar of companies after the end of their financial year.

To safeguard independence, audit firms will only be allowed to earn up to 10 per cent of their total fee income from one client or group of client companies. A lower limit of 5 per cent will be imposed in the case of a publicly quoted company, financial institution or public interest company. More formal monitoring to enforce this limit will apply.

The role of audit committees is to be strengthened. They should meet external auditors several times a year, both in the presence of management and independent of management. They should also regularly meet the internal auditors without management and compile an annual report for shareholders

Directors should be required to report on an annual basis to the shareholders on a company's compliance with its obligations under company law, tax law or other relevant statutory or regulatory requirements. The external auditors should, in turn, report on the directors' report as to whether compliance with its obligations is reasonable.

Auditors to financial institutions must provide an annual statement to the Central Bank on whether anything has come to their attention which should be reported to a regulatory authority.