Comment

The world of academia is crying out for accountants who can teach valuable skills to students based on real-world experience, writes Dr. Neil Dunne, FCA Universities need accountants to teach accounting. This seemingly obvious fact is sometimes overlooked in third-level institutions, however, where academic credentials such as a PhD outrank professional accounting qualifications.  Consequently, universities may assign non-accountants to teach technical accounting courses, a situation hard to imagine in other professional fields – law or medicine, for example.  Professionally experienced personnel truly bring a subject alive. Without them in our lecture theatres, we forsake education rooted in the ‘real world’ of professional accounting, and thus risk deterring students from an accounting career. Academia needs qualified accountants, but we also need them to join academia in an informed manner. Here are four points to consider if you are thinking of making this move. Heed the signs There may be indicators that academia is for you. For me, my parents were both teachers, and I was always comfortable in explaining things to others when working as an accountant. Additionally, I enjoyed accounting at school, at university and during my ACA training. Speak up Don’t let a fear of public speaking hold you back. Although my own natural disposition is far from extroversion, I teach (which is a role I am passionate about) to students (whose progress I care about) in an ‘extroverted’ manner. When you are involved in something you care about, you can transcend quietness, shyness or introversion. Research is king To work at most colleges, you will need to have commenced a PhD at the very least. A PhD needs a supervisor. So where to begin? My approach was to attend the annual conference of the Irish Accounting and Finance Association (IAFA). I knew nobody there my first time, but everyone was welcoming. There, I found an especially interesting seminar, which led me to my own PhD supervisor, Professor Niamh Brennan at University College Dublin.  Mind the gap There is usually an initial income fall associated with moving from a professional role to academia, but with time and progress this gap can be bridged. What newcomers may not anticipate, however, is a parallel status change. Moving to academia means we ‘start again,’ in a sense, at the foothills of a whole new mountain. For me, this was a short-term price worth paying for the autonomy, flexibility and meaning associated with an academic role. I would advise any Chartered Accountants curious about academia to investigate more. Reach out to the IAFA, a professor whose classes you may have enjoyed, or to others that have completed PhDs. I ‘made the leap’ myself 17 years ago and have never regretted it.    Dr. Neil Dunne, FCA, is Programme Director and Assistant Professor in Accounting  at Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin

Accountants have a critical role to play in assisting companies, both large and small, to get on their sustainability journey, writes Dee Moran Sustainability reporting is a term that is getting much more traction and interest than in the past and with due cause. From an environmental perspective, the latest report from the Environmental Protection Agency is encouraging in that Ireland’s emissions in 2023 were below the 1990 baseline for the first time in three decades.  However, the report also states that the Climate Act objective of achieving a 51 percent reduction by 2030 will not be achieved unless all sectors meet their indicative reductions.  Therefore, it is critical that we, as accountants, play our part in assisting entities to up their game, particularly in the area of sustainability reporting.  It has become clear in the past year or so that our members’ interest in this area has increased hugely.  Having over 600 members attend our two recent sustainability webinars is testament to this, as are the numbers signing up to the Institute’s certificate and diploma programmes in this area.  The transposition of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) into Irish law on 5 July 2024 requires companies, depending on their size, to begin reporting from 1 January 2024.  Whilst the subsequent publication of the statutory instrument, (S.I. 336/2024) has been very welcome, there remain some areas that require clarification on interpretation before we can begin to write technical guidance for members.  In this special report, Daniel O’Donovan outlines these interpretations in a very clear and concise manner.  We have engaged with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Minister Peter Burke, TD, FCA, on these interpretive questions, and other matters that require clarification. An amending statutory instrument, S.I. 498/2024, was signed into Irish law on 1 October 2024. While the S.I. provides some clarifications, outlined in Daniel O’Donovan’s article, there still remain questions that must be answered regarding the transposition. It is important that there is a shared understanding of the legislation, which will allow preparers to set up the processes and procedures necessary to report and comply with the CSRD.  In this special report, EY’s David Connolly and Alba Boshnjaku outline some of the requirements of the CSRD, and why ignoring sustainability is no longer an option for businesses.  They also discuss the importance of an entity having the right mindset, and that companies complying with the CSRD could see real business benefits and additional opportunities.  While approximately 1,000 companies in Ireland will eventually have to comply with the CSRD, there are thousands of other entities that will have to prepare to report on their sustainability information if they are in the value chain of an in-scope company.  This will place an additional burden on SMEs and a recent study undertaken by Niamh Brennan and Sean O’Reilly from UCD, and Louise Gorman from Trinity College Dublin outlines some of these challenges, and how accountants can assist them in managing the impact. A brief explanation of the research is outlined in their article. As accountants, we have a critical role to play in assisting companies, both large and small, to get on their sustainability journey.  We encourage you to upskill and be prepared to play a role in this journey.   Dee Moran is Professional Accountancy Lead at Chartered Accountants Ireland

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will need to summon all her powers of persuasion if she is to deliver on her second term priority to improve EU competitiveness, writes Judy Dempsey Ursula von der Leyen is no pushover. During her first term as head of the EU Commission, the bloc’s powerful executive, she has focused on competition, trade, energy, data protection and climate change, stamping her own indelible mark on the job.  She has been hands-on. Colleagues who have worked with her note her need for control. Delegating has not been von der Leyen’s métier – nor communication, aside from her passionate support for Ukraine.  Her second term is not going to be easy. Yes, von der Leyen has commissioners on board who are aligned with her own conservative political leaning. Yes, she has a few, very experienced commissioners who served under her first term, if not before. And yes, she has her agenda – competitiveness – as her main focus. The number of newly appointed commissioners alone shows how determined von der Leyen is to bolster EU competitiveness in response to shifting global demands, including the rise of artificial intelligence.  Her second term will not be plain sailing, however – for three reasons.  First, many of her 27 commissioners have overlapping dossiers. This will inevitably lead to turf battles. Continued collegiality is not a given.  Second, the EU is obsessed with regulation. Its bureaucratic and regulatory processes often stifle innovation, and this will continue to be the case. Third is the role of EU member states. In recent years, with a few big exceptions, von der Leyen has dealt with countries that prefer to use the EU Council representing member states for their own agenda and interests. This is bad news for von der Leyen. France, and particularly Germany, have increasingly pushed their national interests before that of Europe. It has always been so, but France and Germany, the historic engine of EU integration, are no longer in sync.  French President Emmanual Macron – now a beleaguered leader who only recently formed a government after months of stalemate – wields little influence in the EU.  Macron’s big ideas about making Europe ready to take care of its own security and defence, and his warnings about the need to defend the essential values that make Europe what is today, have had so little traction. This is no thanks to Germany, where Chancellor Olaf Scholz has failed to engage intellectually with either France or the EU.  Scholz’s policies on immigration (border controls on Schengen countries), more monetary integration (blocking a banking union) and more political integration (blocking treaty change to get rid of some veto powers of the member states), point to a squabbling coalition of Social Democrats, pro-business Free Democrats and Greens, all holding up European integration.  They also confirm a German leader reluctant to embrace bigger-picture thinking for Europe’s future. EU member states opposing greater integration can hide behind Berlin. This is why Germany’s political and economic clout used to matter, and for the right reasons. It is different now – to the detriment of the EU and von der Leyen’s goals. Judy Dempsey is Non-resident Senior Fellow at Carnegie Europe *Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column published in the October/November 2024 issue of Accountancy Ireland are the author’s own. The views of contributors to Accountancy Ireland may differ from official Institute policies and do not reflect the views of Chartered Accountants Ireland, its Council, its committees, or the editor.

Having ascended to the role of Finance Minister just four months ago, this year’s budget was Minister Jack Chambers’ first at the helm of the finance portfolio but the last we will see from the current Government.  With a general election now firmly on the horizon, Budget 2025 was unsurprisingly brimming with generous giveaways for individual taxpayers, including a €1 billion bouquet of personal tax reductions alongside a €2.2 billion hamper of cost-of-living measures.  The giveaways were spread so universally that most individual taxpayers, even those arguably not in need of them, got some degree of ‘bounce’ from the Government but, in a budget so warmly generous, some constituencies were left out in the cold.  Sweetening the electorate Among the suite of income tax measures announced in Budget 2025 were a €2,000 increase to the standard rate cut-off point, a one percent reduction to the four percent rate of Universal Social Charge and a €125 boost to each of the main personal tax credits.  Taking into account the additional cost-of-living payments also announced (including €250 in new electricity credits, and a double payment of child benefit in November and December) the average worker will be about €1,000 better off over the next 12 months.  Add to this an increase to the inheritance tax thresholds across all groupings and one would be forgiven for thinking this was a Celtic Tiger budget of the early to mid-2000s.  Reacting to the package, the Fiscal Advisory Council pointed out how “only about half of the Government’s €2.2 billion cost-of-living measures were targeted,” and emphasised how “the same supports could have been provided to those most in need at a much lower cost”.  Indeed, in an economy at near full employment with inflation at its lowest since 2021, it’s hard to see how such excessive giveaways, bolstering individual spending power, don’t ultimately risk overheating an already red-hot economy. The opportunity cost  But Budget 2025’s preoccupation with wooing individual voters in the run-up to an imminent election came at a cost to other constituencies, particularly small businesses.  Despite months of assurances from Ministers that concrete steps would be taken in the Budget to address the burgeoning costs of doing business, many SMEs may rightly feel left out of the Government’s wave of generosity.  Some measures will be welcomed, such as a one-off Energy Subsidy Scheme worth about €4,000 to businesses in the hospitality and retail sectors, as well an increase to the VAT registration thresholds for the supply of goods and services. However, no real steps were taken to address the elephant in the room – namely, ballooning labour costs.  Ask any small business across the country (and we have – in our Survey of Small Businesses conducted this summer) and they will tell you that labour costs are the single biggest operating cost they face today.  And labour costs are now on the rise again – with a six percent increase to the minimum wage announced as part of the Budget package and an additional 1.5 percent uptick in staff pension costs coming down the track as part of pensions auto-enrolment, due to be launched next September.  Budget 2025 offered a real opportunity for Government to take meaningful steps to ease these cost burdens and take the pressure off small businesses’ narrowing bottom lines.  One option might have been to lower the rate of Employers’ PRSI by 1.5 percent to mitigate the concurrent cost of pensions auto-enrolment to employers, particularly those who employ workers in and around the minimum wage.  We estimate that doing so would have cost in the region of €63 million per annum based on 164,000 people working full-time at the minimum wage.  Such a step would have made a huge difference to small businesses across the country and comes with a more modest price tag than some of the more gratuitous cost-of-living measures included in the final budget package.  But alas, because it is individuals and not businesses who get to vote on election day, perhaps such measures failed to meet the objective of political expediency.  Stephen Lowry is Head of Public Policy at Chartered Accountants Ireland

The ethical use of AI and how it is governed today and as it continues to evolve in the years ahead is top of mind for many in the profession. Accountancy Ireland asks three Chartered Accountants for their take on the ethics of AI Owen Lewis  Head of AI and Management Consulting KPMG in Ireland It is crucial for all of us in the profession to ensure the integrity and transparency of solutions driven by artificial intelligence (AI).  We must audit and validate AI algorithms to ensure they comply with regulatory standards and ethical guidelines. Monitoring systems for biases and inaccuracies is also crucial to ensuring that financial data and decisions remain fair and reliable. By providing independent oversight, we can help to maintain trust in AI-driven financial processes and outcomes for clients.  Where AI is used to inform large-scale decisions, it should be supplemented with significant governance measures, such as explainability, transparency, human oversight, data quality and model robustness and performance requirements. This technology is continuing to advance rapidly, and we need to be open to both its current and potential capabilities.  By putting the correct governance mechanisms and controls in place – beginning with low-risk test applications and building from there – organisations can adopt AI safely and obtain real benefits from its use. I am working with organisations to help them think through what AI means for them, develop strategies for its adoption, put the necessary governance and controls in place, scale solutions sensibly and ensure business leaders get real value from their investment.  Whatever their goal may be – more efficient operations, accelerated content generation or improved engagement with stakeholders – we help organisations decide if AI can help, and if it can, how to use it in the right way. >Bob Semple Experienced Director Governance and Risk Management Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most misunderstood, yet transformative, technologies impacting the way we work today. Here are 10 essential steps Chartered Accountants should take to navigate the landscape of AI effectively. Take a leadership role – If we don’t take the lead, we risk missing the golden opportunity AI presents. Conduct an AI “stocktake” –According to a recent Microsoft survey, 75 percent of employees are already using AI. Identifying current AI usage within your organisation is essential. Assess the downside risks of AI – Legislative and regulatory requirements are exploding (e.g. NIS 2, the AI Act, DORA and more) and risks abound (AI bias, explainability, privacy, IP, GDPR, cyber security, resilience, misuse, model drift and more). Organisations must act on their AI responsibilities. Conduct a dataset stocktake – Just as the Y2K challenge was about identifying IT systems, today’s challenge is to catalogue all datasets, as these are crucial for AI functionality. Draft appropriate policies and procedures – Establish clear responsibilities and accountability for AI initiatives. Pay special attention to how AI impacts decision-making processes. Strengthen data curation – Implement new processes to improve how data is collected and used. Identify opportunities for the smart use of AI – Brainstorm and prioritise AI use-cases that can drive efficiency and innovation. Provide training – Ensure that board members, management and staff are all adequately trained on AI principles and applications. Manage the realisation of benefits – Safeguard against excessive costs and subpar returns by carefully managing the implementation of AI projects. Update audit and assurance approaches – Seek independent assurance on AI applications and leverage AI to enhance risk, control and audit processes. As we adopt AI, it is critical that we pay particular attention to distorted agency – i.e. giving too much agency to, or relying unduly on, AI outputs and doubting our own agency to make the most important decisions. Exercising professional judgement is the key to minimising the risks associated with AI and realising its benefits, and that surely is the strength of every Chartered Accountant. *Note: GPT4 was used to assist in drafting this article.   Níall Fitzgerald Head of Ethics and Governance Chartered Accountants Ireland Artificial intelligence (AI) is proving to be transformative, impacting competitiveness and how business is done.  Chartered Accountants Ireland has engaged with members working in various finance and C-suite positions, including chief executives, chief financial officers and board members, to understand how AI is impacting their day-to-day work.  One thing is clear. AI is being used in some shape or form in many businesses across the country.  In 2023, the Institute’s response to the UK’s Financial Reporting Council proposals on introducing governance requirements for the use of AI noted several governance mechanisms that are likely to be impacted by AI currently or in the very near future in many organisations.  We highlighted the focus on corporate purpose and how market forces, emerging threats and opportunities driven by AI, may challenge the purpose of an organisation and its long-term objectives.  AI may impact how organisations decide on their strategic focus in terms of how they deliver their product or service and, indeed, how their product or service is designed in the first instance.  It may also impact these organisations’ values as they consider how to deploy and use AI in an ethical manner. The EU AI Act, which enters into force on 1 August 2024 over a phased basis, introduces requirements for the development of codes of conducts, risk and impact assessments and staff training to ensure adequate human oversight around the use of AI systems within organisations. This has specific resonance for Chartered Accountants who are members of a profession bound by a code of ethics governing objectivity, confidentiality, integrity, professional behaviour and competence and due care. Chartered Accountants must now ensure that they understand how AI uses, analyses and then outputs data.  Organisations must ensure that any AI-driven information they share, and how they deploy the technology itself, satisfies principles of integrity, honesty and transparency.  Chartered Accountants are well-positioned, with their ethical mindsets, to ensure the integrity of AI systems, and their use within organisations.

Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the US presidential race marked the departure of the last “Atlanticist” in American politics and Europe is ill-prepared for what lies ahead, writes Judy Dempsey  The decision by Joe Biden not to run against Donald Trump has upturned American politics. There are so many uncertainties about who will be elected as the next president of the United States on 5 November.  Until then, America will be preoccupied with domestic politics. It’s going to demand huge effort by the departments of state and defence to keep the focus on Ukraine, Israel and what is happening in the Middle East, not to mention China.   With the exception of Ukraine, Europe is a bystander, but Biden’s decision could change the transatlantic relationship.  Few European leaders, apart from French President Emmanuel Macron, understand how this fundamental shift in transatlantic dynamics could affect Europe’s defence, security and intelligence gathering.  Biden is the last “Atlanticist.” His career, experience in foreign policy and age made him a believer in the enduring bonds between the United States and Europe. Yes, his administration complained about Europeans not taking their defence or security seriously, but intellectually and emotionally, he is an Atlanticist.  Donald Trump cares little about Europe, the EU, NATO, or the idea of “the West”. Even if Europe increased its share of defence spending to NATO, it would never be enough. For Trump, Europeans are free-riders and unable collectively to think and act defensively. For him, this is Europe’s problem, not America’s. Just as Ukraine is not America’s problem either. If a Democrat wins the US presidential election, they will likely belong to the younger generation whose past has no connection with Europe and which is more attuned to the emerging competition between the United States and China, Russia and other countries resentful of America and what it represents.  This shift also has major implications for Europe’s security, its economy and future developments in Ukraine. Yet, Europe is not prepared for the changes taking place across the Atlantic.  The post-1945 era that was built on multilateral institutions, arms control and a confident West is ending, so what can Europe do to deal with such irreversible change?  EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wants Europe to have a Defense Tsar and a collective defense-spending policy. Neither is likely to fly – and not just because neutral countries would not buy into them.  Germany has rejected proposals to finance new defence purchases through joint borrowing, arguing that there is already enough industrial and research funding for defence.  On top of this, because defence is such a national issue, it is hard to see member states ceding any of this sovereignty to Brussels. The real issue here is Europe. The 27 member states can’t agree on which direction the union should take. More political and economic integration would make sense, but several countries want to regain more sovereignty at the expense of making Europe capable of speaking with one voice.   As the United States and the West decline, there is a chance for Europe to step in. Unfortunately, member states and EU leaders lack the courage to do what is needed.  Judy Dempsey is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at Carnegie Europe and Editor-in-Chief of Strategic Europe *Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column published in the August/September 2024 issue of Accountancy Ireland are the author’s own. The views of contributors to Accountancy Ireland may differ from official Institute policies and do not reflect the views of Chartered Accountants Ireland, its Council, its committees, or the editor.