Powers of the Authority

The Authority’s principal powers include:

the power to adopt rules and issue guidelines concerning any matter that relates to its functions or powers;
the right to apply to the High Court for an order compelling:
- a prescribed accountancy body to comply with a rule adopted or guideline issued; or
- a recognised accountancy body to comply with a term or condition attached to its audit recognition
the right to require access to prescribed bodies’ records and to require explanations about the performance of their regulatory and monitoring duties;
the power to impose sanctions on prescribed accountancy bodies in circumstances where the Authority is not satisfied that their approved investigation and disciplinary procedures have been complied with. Sanctions available to the Authority in such circumstances include:
- annulling all, or part, of a prescribed body’s decision relating to an enquiry performed by it;
- directing a prescribed body to conduct an investigation or a fresh investigation into a matter;
- imposing a fine not exceeding €125,000 (or such other amount as may be prescribed by the Minister) on a prescribed body;
the power to require a relevant person to attend before the Authority and the power to examine a relevant person on oath in the context of an investigation into a possible breach of the standards of a prescribed body;
the right to certify a refusal to cooperate with the Authority’s investigations into a possible breach of the standards of a prescribed body to the High Court;
the power to impose sanctions on a member of a prescribed body where the member in question is found to have committed a breach of the body’s standards;
the power to require any of the following persons to:
- produce any document in his or her possession or control;
- make copies of such documents; and
- provide any information or explanations that it may reasonably require for the purpose of examining and reviewing information published pursuant to Regulations 4 to 8:

	i. an issuer;
	ii. any director, manager, officer or employee of an issuer;
	iii. any persons who control, or are controlled by, a person referred to at (i) or (ii);
	iv. any person discharging managerial responsibilities of the issuer;
	v. an auditor of an issuer; and
	vi. any person who fell within any of (i) to (v) at a time when the document or information required by IAASA was prepared or came into existence;

the power to certify to the High Court the refusal or failure of any person referred to in (i) to (v) above to comply with a requirement made by IAASA under Regulation 43(1)(a); and

the power, where it appears to IAASA that there is, or may be, a failure by an issuer to ensure that a published annual or half-yearly financial report complies with the relevant reporting framework, IAASA may:

give notice to the issuer and the directors of the issuer specifying the matters in respect of which it appears to IAASA that the information fails to comply with the relevant reporting framework;
in the absence of written explanation or the issuance of revised information, IAASA may give a direction requiring the issuer to revise the information in accordance with its instructions;
seek an order of confirmation from the High Court of its direction; and
recover its costs from the issuer.

Regulations 60 to 74 detail the administrative sanctions process in respect of breaches of the Transparency Directive’s requirements. An overview of this administrative sanctions process applying to contraventions

of the Transparency Directive’s requirements, as transposed into Irish law, may be found in Section 12 of A Guide to the Financial Reporting Requirements of the EU Transparency Directive and to IAASA’s Role under the Directive.