ICAI’s new premises in Dublin and Belfast
Author:
Pat Costello
Most readers are aware by now that the ICAI is planning to move premises both in Dublin and in Belfast in the near future. All being well we will move into new premises in Belfast in early 2007 and our new custom build centre in Pearse Street will be ready to be occupied in early 2009.
Owning our own building again, following the sale of the premises in Fitzwilliam Square, has been a long standing ambition of the Institute. A proposal to allow Council to purchase a new building was rejected by members in 1984 as it involved a levy on them. Ireland has changed considerably since then. What may have been perceived as overambitious then is merely ambitious now!
The origins of this particular proposal have their roots in the Strategic Review process of 2004. That report recommended a renewed emphasis on the importance of the Institute as a centre of excellence for accounting training and education. And while the report itself obviously did not focus on the issue of premises, the impetus to acquire and develop a dedicated training and education centre was an obvious extension of Report’s findings.
Both new buildings, in Dublin and Belfast, will provide dedicated training facilities to enable the training of students and members take place on site. Obviously as the Institute currently has to pay for the use of external facilities for training there are cost synergies involved here. But more importantly we believe that by bringing the Institute’s training and administrative centres under one roof (and obviously that would include the provision of much of our extensive CPD programme) we will not only be able to provide higher quality and more flexible training for students and members, we will also be building a greater bond between students, members and their institute. The new premises will also facilitate our planned expansion in certified post qualification training and cater for the requirements of our new syllabus. Staff at the Institute are excited by the dynamic that will be generated by bringing our key ‘customers’ closer to us.
Equally importantly though, the two new premises stand also as a testament to the Institute’s ambitions going forward. The last few years have been good ones for ICAI. Student numbers are particularly healthy and look like growing again next year. The aforementioned Strategic Review Group report has set out a strategy for us to follow or the next ten years and we are pursuing it ambitiously. As part of that strategy we have also been placing considerable emphasis on emphasising the premier nature of the CA brand. Put bluntly a premier brand requires premier premises.
Members are entitled to ask of course how much this will cost. After all the previous proposal was rejected on the basis that it involved a levy. On this occasion however things are different. There will be no special recourse to members to fund this proposal. Our new leased premises in Belfast is currently being fitted out and will be open early next year. In addition to the student and training facilities that will cater for 300 students / members, the Belfast office will cater for the Ulster Society, the Research and Information Services and the newly established Chartered Accountants Regulatory Board. As indicated earlier the Dublin office when completed will bring the Institute’s training and all its administrative operations under the one roof and will cater for over 1,000 students or members in the training rooms with capacity ranging from 320 to 15.
No significant hurdles have been encountered thus far in relation to the Dublin development. Planning permission has been secured and work will commence on site in January 2007. Both these moves mark important steps in the growth of our Institute. They indicate our determination to move forward with confidence and vision in order to support our members. There is obviously some work to do yet but the future looks bright.