Once the seventh-biggest company in the US, Enron used a complicated web of offthe-books partnerships to hide billions of dollars of debt and losses.

The company eventually collapsed in 2001, wiping out its $68bn market value, eradicating at least $1bn in pension savings and costing 5,600 jobs.

Much of the blame has been pinned on America's tick-box approach to accounting, where the emphasis is on complying with the letter rather than the spirit of the law.

On this side of the Atlantic, accountants, investors and watchdogs are divided as to the extent to which our different approach to financial reporting and corporate governance would protect us from an Enron-style scandal.

Niamh Brennan, professor of management in UCD: "Yes, it could happen here. Any company could be run into the ground if management is corrupt and the normal checks and balances are not working properly."

She singles out the IFSC and the credit union movement as areas in need of tighter regulation.

"It gives one a bad feeling to read about subsidiaries based in the IFSC being caught up in scandals such as Cologne Re and Parmalat, and when a paper such as The New York Times calls us 'the wild west of European finance' . . . . In relation to credit unions, I don't see a huge amount coming out of the sector that makes me feel they're getting to grips with required standards of corporate governance."

Pat Costello, Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland:

"It would be naive to think you can ever legislate fully against wrongdoing, but, on a regulatory level things have changed considerably in Ireland and in Europe over the last few years, much of it predating the events in Enron."

He warns of the dangers of excess regulation. "We need to avoid a situation whereby the illegal few set the parameters for the compliant many. It is a difficult balance to get right and we will need to work at it continuously."

Paul Appleby, Director of Corporate Enforcement: "If something similar [to Enron] were to happen here, we'd be much better equipped to deal with it than five years ago. The legislation and resources are there now which wouldn't have been there in the past."

He claims there is a greater appetite to tackle white-collar crime, pointing to the disqualification of people implicated in the Ansbacher and National Irish Bank scandals from acting as directors in the future. "There's no shortage of effort on our part to deal with scandals that have come to light."

John Sheehan, head of research, NCB Stockbrokers:

"Could it happen again? You can never say never, especially when people are ingenious enough to come up with the type of schemes we've seen at Enron and elsewhere.

"But, by and large, Irish public companies get very high ratings from international fund managers and investors for the quality of their financial disclosures, the timeliness of the information and the access they get to management."

Frank O'Dwyer, chief executive of the Irish Association of Investment Managers: "Given the rigorous financial reporting standards, auditing requirements and the general regulatory environment, it is extremely unlikely that something on the scale of Enron could happen in Ireland."