Passion for the Profession
Author:
John Greely
It is both an honour and a privilege to be selected as President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland. I feel humble to be following in steps of my 77 predecessors in this role but I am also looking forward to the year ahead with passion, enthusiasm and with a keen sense of the vital work that we are about to undertake in response to the findings of our Strategy Review Group - but more of that elsewhere (See pages 6-7 of this issue).
I take up office as your President at an exciting time.
As an Institute we have made considerable progress in recent years. Our financial position is stronger than it has been for many years, and more importantly perhaps, our fundamentals are right.
Compare our student numbers with those of our sister Institutes for example . Student numbers are perhaps the best benchmark of the long term health of a professional body like ours. The English Institute ( a body with over 125000 members) has 8,694 students, ICAS has 2,431 while ICAI has 3,000. And, in fact, the ICAI position is understated since our figure refers only to students in education, whereas the others refer to those under training contract. The comparable figure for ICAI is close to 3,700.
There is more good news too. The average age of an English Chartered Accountant is 47, of a Scottish Chartered Accountant, 49, and of an Irish Chartered Accountant, 35.
The bottom line is that we are a vibrant Institute and laying the foundations for another successful century. And how are we achieving that?
The simple reality is that our qualification remains a gateway to a successful and rewarding business career.
You only have to look around you to see the evidence of that: in the number of Chartered Accountants in senior positions in industry around this country, in the contribution our members have made to the economic success of our nation, in the way in which we have worked constructively with Government - on both sides of the border - to put in place a regulatory environment that facilitates business growth and development.
Sure we still have problems but we have won the respect of Government and regulators our voice is heard at the highest levels. The recent decision by the Government in the Republic to revisit the controversial Directors' Compliance Statements is a case in point.
In society more generally, Chartered Accountants contribute in many ways and are often unsung heroes working on a pro bono basis in community projects, sport clubs and for charities both at home and abroad.
Both as an Institute and as district societies we have raised substantial sums in the last year for a number of Irish charities and I know that we will continue to make a significant contribution in the years ahead.
As I embark on my year as your President, I would like to thank in advance my fellow Council members and our very committed executive team with whom I look forward to working closely over the coming 12 months.
I look forward to meeting many of you around the country, and indeed abroad, in the course of the coming year.
Coming from a small practice, I am particularly conscious of the burden that my involvement with the Institute will place on my colleagues over the coming months, and in particular on my partner at JP Greely & Co, Charlie Carri. I thank them publicly here for their support. And of course, I couldn’t take on a challenge like this without the tremendous support of my wife June, and our family - Shauna, Niamh, Kevin, Emer, Conor and Louis, who will see even less of me in the coming year
John P Greely, FCA
President