Governance, Compliance and Legal Enforcement: Evaluating a Recent Irish Regulatory Intervention

Abstract

Recent regulatory changes in Ireland include both the establishment of a compliance enforcement body ODCE (Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement) in 2001, the main focus of this paper, and the publication of The Companies (Auditing & Accounting) Act of 2003. In this paper we link discussion on corporate governance in SMEs with regulatory compliance set within the broad context of how recent regulatory changes in Ireland may be impacting on business culture. Law mediates the relationship between the steering media of economics and politics (Habermas) - and the lifeworlds of accountants, auditors and company directors. The relationship between the economic system and company law is not a simple binary - but a complex mediated one that is also subject to a range of other local, national, European and global forces. We also present some empirical evidence here on how such regulatory changes are perceived by Irish accountants, auditors and directors.

Keywords: Corporate governance, compliance, Ireland, ODCE, regulation

JEL Classification: G38, G34, H30, K42, L50, M41, M49