209 / 270
GAZETTE
DECEMBER1980
companies must have their Annual Accounts audited by
persons authorized by national law to audit accounts, but
it does grant an option to Member States to exempt small
companies (as defined below) from this obligation).
Publication
Generally, the Fourth Directive requires all companies
to publish their Annual Accounts and the Auditor's
Report in accordance with the publication requirements
of the First Council Directive of_ 9 March 1968
(68/151/EEC,
1
However, Member States are allowed
exempt "small" and "medium-sized" companies from
some of these publication requirements.
A small company
2
may be authorised to publish only
an abridged Balance Sheet and abridged Notes to the
accounts, being exempted entirely from the obligation to
publish a Profit and Loss Account and Annual Report. A
medium-sized company
3
may be allowed publish an,
abridged Balance Sheet, abridged Profit and Loss
Account and abridged Notes to the accounts.
Pending the adoption of the draft Seventh Directive on
consolidated accounts, Member States may exempt
subsidiaries from the provisions of the Fourth Directive
provided certain conditions are fulfilled: these include, in
particular, that the subsidiaries' debts are publicly
guaranteed by the parent and that its accounts are
consolidated by the parent. In addition, parent companies
may^be exempted from publishing a separate Profit and
Loss Account if they produce consolidated accounts
conforming as far as possible with the provisions of the
Fourth Directive.
Further Reading
"Handbook on the EEC Fourth Directive": The
Institute of Chartered Accounts in Ireland.
"The Fourth Directive": Whinney Murray Ernst &
Ernst (Kluwer Publishing, London).
1. O J . L65 of 14.3.68.
2. A Company which does not exceed any two of the following
critieria:
(i) Balance Sheet total: 1,000,000 European Units of Account (i.e.
about IR£670,000).
(ii) Net turnover: 2,000,000 EUA (i.e.: about IR£ 1,340,000).
(iii) Average number of employees: 50.
3. A company which does not exceed any two. of the following criteria:
critieria:
(i) Balance Sheet total: 4,000,000 EUA (i.e.: about IR£2,680,000).
(ii) Net turnover: 8,000,000 EUA (i.e.: about IR£5,360,000).
(iii) Average Number of Employees: 250.
The Benefit of the Doubt
by Fr Eddie Brady, W.F., Longford*
Before I became a priest I was Town Clerk of Cavan.
The part of the job I liked best was attending the district
court — as a witness, of course. We had prosecutions;
rent defaulters; disputes over sewers; wasting of water
and breaches of byelaws.
I used to love listening to Justice Lavery. He was an
old man — but his brain was young and active - he could
spot a legal point or loophole like a hawk.
What impressed me most about him was his fairness.
Thirty years have passed since I saw him, but in my
mind's eye I can still see him and hear him say, "There is
a doubt in this case; I will therefore give the accused the
benefit of that doubt".
I thought again of him here in Africa. It was rather
peculiar. We were having a Baptism course for adult
pagans, boys and girls about eighteen years of age.
Everything was ready; the Baptism would be next
morning; they were decorating the bush Church; all were
full of joy and enthusiasm.
At dusk, I went to my hut to make myself a cup of tea.
Then some neighbours came to see me. I invited them in
and they sat on the mud floor. After some palaver they
told me their complaint, which it upset me to hear.
The complaint concerned Sylvia — one of the girls who
was to be baptised next morning who, they said, secretly
intended to marry a pagan boy. If this were true, she
should not be baptised until the usual undertakings were
given, but this would have to be investigated and
approved by the Village Church Council. It would take
days. I was distressed.
I called Sylvia from the Church, where she
was fixing flowers on the Altar. She came to my hut.
We told her the rumour. She was very upset, and
strongly denied it. She began to cry. I don't know whether
it was her tears or the remembrance of that old judge
back home that won the day for Sylvia, but I gave my
verdict — I gave her the benefit of the doubt. Radiant with
joy, she was baptised next morning along with her
companions.
She was right. The rumour was untrue. It was mere
gossip. There is malicious gossip in Africa, just as in
Ireland. What harm it can do! Sylvia is now married -
to a Christian boy. She has three beautiful big-eyed black
kids — two girls and one boy.
Always, when I see her, I think of old Judge Lavery
with his wig and gown and his, "benefit of the doubt" for
he was human, and he had taught me to be human, too.
*The author was appointed Town Clerk, Cavan, in 1953.
1953.
He resigned in 1959 to study for the Missionary
Priesthood with the White Fathers (Missionaries of
Africa). He was ordained Priest in 1966.
He taught in a secondary school in Tanzania, East
Africa for five years. Then he was assigned to mission
promotion in Ireland.
Back in Africa (Tanzania again) in 1976, he had
charge in a parish in a remote area in the bush.
At present he is home again on mission promotion in
Ireland. He hopes one day to return to his beloved Africa.
203