Sir, - As a very old member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland who lives overseas, I read with great interest (July 12th) of the proposed new Oversight Board to regulate the accountancy profession and your editorial on the matter.
I agree that it is necessary to take steps to try and ensure that the misdemeanours in which certain members of the profession have been involved do not happen again. However, the whole matter should not be exaggerated as the heading of Mary Canniffe's article "Audit report can offer lifeline to battered profession" tends to do.
Let us not overlook the fact that the number of members of the ICAI who have betrayed the principles and standards which that Institute professes is very limited when compared with the total number of members (approximately 10,000). The great majority of these in their day to day work adhere to the professional standards of the Institute.
I am a great believer in the principle that before people start trying to clean up other people's backyards they should clean up their own first. I therefore suggest that Ms Harney takes her present campaign further and puts in place procedures to ensure that the backyards of some of her political friends are cleaned up and kept so. Only when that happens would I have any real confidence in the sincerity of her approach as regards regulating the accountancy profession. - Yours, etc.,
Denis O'Kelly, Velletri (Roma), Italy.