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The front cover of this issue of Accountancy Ireland shows the main contract for ICAI’s new premises being signed in Dublin last month. We asked Chief Executive, Pat Costello to give readers an update on the project.

What is the thinking behind the new premises?

This has been on the Council agenda for a number of years. As members will know, back in the 1970s the Institute owned its own building. Then, in 1982, we moved into a leased premises on Pembroke Road in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 where we have been until relatively recently. There has been a view in the last number of years, however, that an Institute of this size should own its own building. Part of the thinking is, of course, that it makes a statement and, on the representational front, it is important to have a building where you can engage with Government Ministers or the Taoiseach and so on. But also, importantly, the Strategy Review Group (SRG) established by Council a couple of years ago had come up with the concept of a School of Accounting. They were talking not so much about bricks and mortar but about a vision of delivering really relevant flexible learning. When their report was issued and we set about interpreting and implementing the recommendations at management level and at Council, we came to the conclusion that really we needed bricks and mortar. So Council established a Premises Committee, initially chaired by John Greely, then by Sean Fitzpatrick, and now by our President, Vincent Sheridan. The thinking is that the new facility will be more of a training centre rather than a head office – a training centre with a head office attached. It will give us 60,000 sq ft. and roughly 50% of that will be a training facility. Some of it will be fixed tier seating and the remainder will be flexible. It should also be said that there is a desire at Council to connect more effectively with our members and what better way to achieve it than at the stage when they become students.

Presumably CPD and Lifelong Learning will also be catered for in-house in the new facility?

Exactly. It will cater for 1200 students or members at any one time in 15 rooms with capacity varying from 600 down to boardroom size. About 50% of that will be flexible so we can use it in any set up – workshop, small groups, big groups. The other 50% will be tiered seating in rooms catering for groups of from150 up to 600. It will give us the ability to train our students in a really flexible way. For our members there is a greater focus now on delivering top quality CPD. We are in the process of delivering a range of post-ACA qualifications. We have four at the moment and we expect another eight qualifications to be rolled out over the next three years. Having our own facilities will make that much easier. Bear in mind that it isn't just about Dublin. We also have a new facility in Belfast. We are also conscious of the fact that we need geographical outreach to our members and while it is not possible to have a facility in every city in Ireland, having these facilities in Dublin and Belfast will allow us to do things like eCPD more effectively, recording and delivering to our members nationwide.

What is the project budget?

Council considered a budget of up to €51.5m and we expect to be able to deliver the project within that. We are now at main contract stage which means that all the enabling works have been completed. We have a fixed price lump sum with a leading contractor, P Elliot & Co. Part of the challenge when you are doing a fixed price lump sum is to have a very advanced specification completed so we put a huge effort over the past year into the design of the building. Consequently we don't anticipate having to make significant changes which might cost a lot of money. We have also put a lot of effort into the funding of the project. Once we were committed to it we decided very early on to fix the interest for ten years two years out. We got a very competitive rate which manages a lot of the risk on the funding side and we are very pleased with that. We're confident, insofar as we can be that this project will come in on budget.

Will there be an impact on members' subscriptions?

We have said all along that we don't envisage having to go to members to fund this building. We should be able to fund it from the existing business of the Institute. You must remember that we rent a considerable amount of facilities at the moment for our students and members. We believe that the money we're spending on rent at the moment will go a long way toward funding the project and we're confident that we won't have to go to members on this occasion.

Who is managing the project?

As Chief Executive I carry overall responsibility and I am fortunate to have our Director of IT, John Patten, who managed the fit-out of our Belfast office, helping me. We have leading project managers in the Bruce Shaw Partnership. We also have a very active Premises Committee and we have assistance from a property consultant, Kieran Duggan. Council are also updated at each Council meeting.

You've talked about how the facilities will be used to benefit students. What additional services will the new premises offer for members? Will members be able to rent rooms for client meetings or network meetings?

We would be absolutely delighted to provide that and it is one of the services that we will be promoting closer to the finalisation of the building. We will have rooms from boardroom size up to groups of 600 with catering facilities and what better place for members to bring their clients or colleagues. We'll be delighted to be able to offer that service (at a very competitive rate of course)!

Are you satisfied that Pearse Street is the right location?

We spent a lot of time thinking about the location of the building and we realised when we looked at every option that we were never going to have sufficient car parking even if we went to Sandyford or out to City West so we decided to go as central as possible. We have secured a really good location with a top class transport infrastructure, insofar as it can be top class in Ireland. It's beside the Luas, Dart, Busaras, the IFSC and Trinity College. We think that most of our members and students working in Dublin will be able to walk to the facility from their offices.

When you do expect the new premises to open for business?

All going well we expect everything to be completed for Summer 2009 and we're looking forward to opening a first class facility for members and students that befits the status of Ireland’s leading professional body.

Accountancy Ireland December 2007 Vol.39 No.6