“The underlying difficulty,” the Minister explained, “and the reason for asking IAASA to look at this question, lies in the absence of a legal or uniformly accepted definition of the term “accountant”. This, allied to usages such as, for example, “turf accountant” creates an inevitable looseness such as to allow persons to style themselves as “accountants” who do not, perhaps, have any underpinning qualifications, with obvious implications for the general public”.

Minister Ahern revealed that the IAASA had engaged in a significant consultation exercise with individuals and companies for whom this matter is relevant, and had concluded in principle that there is merit in effecting change in this area, in order to address the issue.

Welcoming this development, the Minister observed that:

"In moving forward, the objective is to enhance consumer protection without imposing undue restraints on trade and competition.”

Minister Ahern went on to clarify that he had given the go-ahead for IAASA to proceed to the next stage of the exercise, through further engagement with interested parties on both sides of the debate, so as to elicit a set of reasonable, equitable, workable and balanced proposals which it can then consider.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI) on Friday announced that it welcomed the statement.

ICAI President, Martin Wilson, stated that:

"It is pleasing to see the Minister's commitment on this issue bearing fruit. Obviously, we are pleased but not surprised that IAASA has come back with a recommendation to the Minister that this issue needs to be addressed. We look forward to working with IAASA on the next phase of its work."

"The Government has moved in recent times to offer statutory definitions of professions like architects and we see no reason why any difficulties surrounding the application of the same principle to accountants cannot work also. Like Minister Ahern we view this matter primarily as a consumer protection issue although there are equity issues involved as well."