Accountants are generally recognised as making a valuable contribution to society, by providing the information that allows entrepreneurship to flourish, business to operate efficiently, stakeholders’ interests to be protected, shares to be fairly priced, and taxation and audit requirements to be satisfied. Accounting, however, has not always enjoyed such an established position, and today there is often a tendency to take our profession’s status for granted. It is interesting, therefore, to examine the factors that have brought accounting to the preeminent place that it occupies today.

To access the full text of this article, please see the Digital Edition of Accountancy Ireland, Vol 43, No 1, February 2011.