Representation and Service to Members: A Lot Done ...
Author:
Pat Costello
The publication of this issue of Accountancy Ireland should coincide, almost to the day, with the report to Government on the Directors Compliance Statement from the Company Law Review Group, following the referral of the issue to that body in May.
ICAI has been to the fore in the business lobby on this issue. From day one, when the Companies Bill 2003 was published,
until today, we have worked hard to convince Government that this is an unnecessary burden to impose on Irish
business. Getting to the stage we are at now has been an achievement in itself. The undertaking by Government,
under the auspices of the CLRG to undertake a regulatory impact assessment marks an important development which
will be used increasingly in future to assess the impact of proposals on our national competitiveness.
Occasionally, it is said that ICAI does not represent its business members in the same way as our practice members.
Yet, on this business issue, we have worked hard to keep this issue alive. As businesses began to prepare in detail for the
commencement of the relevant sections, the additional burden it would entail became all the clearer. Our efforts
eventually paid off. Government listened and hopefully will do so following the CLRG report.
Government is to be congratulated on another front also. The establishment of a Business Regulation Group is a particularly
welcome development which should allow for continuing dialogue between Government and the business community
on these issues. ICAI has been arguing for some time that there is a need for a period of regulatory pause and reflection
and while it is obviously too early to say how this group will work, it is certainly the kind of body we’ve been looking for.
Government is frequently criticised by business groups including ourselves, often rightly, but there are times when
we should give credit where it is due and this is one of them. The work though of a representative organisation is never
done. Following the appointment of a new Head of Taxation, we have been far more vocal on issues pertaining to both the
Revenue Commissioners and HMRC. That will continue. Resulting from Council’s decision to split our technical and
regulatory departments we will soon be appointing a Director of Representation and Technical Strategy to coordinate the
extensive work the ICAI does on behalf of members with Government, regulatory bodies and particularly standard
setters.
There are a number of obvious challenges ahead. Though the audit exemption threshold, for example, was only increased a
year ago, the case for a further increase in light of EU and UK developments, is now compelling. There is a now an interesting
debate developing in the UK about an appropriate regime for SMEs. This is something ICAI said was worth looking at when
presenting on audit issues to an Oireachtas Committee last year. It is an area that we will be returning to strongly in the
Autumn as part of the debate about the threshold levels. The revised EU auditing directive it expected to be signed off on in
September and work will need to commence with both the UK and Irish Government’s about transposition.
Also from Europe, the 3rd anti-money laundering directive was recently agreed and we will be seeking to persuade
Government to deal with anomalies that have arisen following the transposition of the 2nd Directive. We are also
working with other professional bodies on the issue of limited liability partnerships – a long overdue measure in the
Republic of Ireland and will be monitoring developments in Europe and the United Kingdom on the development of a
proportionate liability regime for auditors.
I’m now approaching the end of my first year in the position of Chief Executive. It is a challenge I’ve thoroughly enjoyed
and throughout I’ve sought to bring a new and renewed focus on membership services. Central to that has been the production of a Charter of Rights for members which is reproduced in this edition of Accountancy Ireland. It is a simple high level document which sets out the type of service each member is entitled to receive from their Institute. It has been discussed and endorsed by all our staff and was circulated to members a couple of months ago.
This new focus too has involved changes in our management structure including the recruiting of a number of new
Directors, in addition to the already mentioned Head of Taxation and Director of Representation and Technical
Strategy. The aim here is to increase the range of services available to members and improve our representation on
behalf of members. The Head of Taxation, Brian Keegan, who I know is already making an impression on members who specialise in the taxation area, a new Director of Publishing, Kieran Lyons, whose remit is to establish ICAI and as a publishing house of note and finally, Michael McDonnell who takes up the position of Director of Lifelong Learning this month.
While the slogan itself may have been debased somewhat, this year at ICAI we certainly feel that we’ve a lot done but a
lot more to do. It’s been an exciting first year and I look forward to gathering further momentum for the years ahead.
Pat Costello
Chief Executive
pat.costello@icai.ie