IAASA annual report
The Irish Auditing and Accounting supervisory Authority (IAASA) has published its 2023 annual report. During the year the IAASA:
- examined 43 public interest entity (PIE) corporate reports for compliance with accounting and disclosure requirements
- completed a thematic review across the six prescribed accountancy bodies on aspects of investigation and disciplinary systems
- inspected 31 PIE audit files for compliance with auditing standards
- completed six enforcement settlement agreements, resulting in fines totalling over €50,000 and one prohibition from signing audit reports
- launched a public awareness campaign to highlight the benefits of engaging an accountant who is regulated by a prescribed accountancy body.
The report notes that during the year IAASA also issued Guidelines for the Recognised Accountancy Bodies to apply to their approval and registration function in respect of statutory auditors and audit firms.
IAASA has issued a reminder that the six-year quality assurance review cycle is a maximum
IAASA also noted its engagement with the accounting bodies on the implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. The authority will have a role in the licensing and supervision of sustainability assurance service providers and in the compliance with European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) in corporate reports of PIEs.
Audit monitoring
IAASA has issued a reminder that the six-year quality assurance review cycle mentioned in Section 1496 of the Companies Act is a maximum, and accounting bodies need to risk assess their audit firms and use this risk assessment to determine content and frequency of quality assurance reviews.
ACCA has a comprehensive on-demand training course on ESRS implementation
ESRS guides
Accountancy Europe has published guides to assist in some of the more difficult aspects of ESRS. These include guides on materiality assessment and value chain reporting. The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group has also produced guides, including a spreadsheet of ESRS data points. ACCA has launched a fully comprehensive, seven-module, on-demand training course covering every aspect of ESRS implementation.
Sustainability assurance standard
IAASA has announced that it intends to adopt the existing International Standard on Assurance Engagements 3000 (ISAE 3000). The new standard will be issued shortly as the European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive was transposed into Irish law on 5 July.
Other possible options were available, but this is the one that ACCA and the majority of other respondents called for in their submissions to the public consultation. ISAE 3000 will be used in Ireland until there is an EU finalised ISSA 5000 standard.
IAASA has also said that it intends that sustainability assurance providers will be obliged to comply with the relevant provisions of the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants code.
SMPs will be able to immediately adopt ISSA 5000
Sustainability assurance interim audit assignments will begin shortly for the very large quoted ones, with most fieldwork taking place in early 2025. Large quoted and large unquoted assignments will begin this time next year, by which time the EU should have approved the ISSA 5000 standard. SMPs will be able to immediately adopt the ISSA 5000 standard, whereas the Big Four audit firms will have to temporarily transition though ISAE 3000 before adopting ISSA 5000 in a year’s time.
Sustainability and SMEs
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has created an online resource bringing together many of the government sustainability supports and grants available for SMEs.
Insolvency appointments
Between 1 January 2024 and the end of June 2024, almost 250 different insolvency practitioners accepted between them 1,350 Irish insolvency appointments. While numerical comparisons can prove misleading given the differing lengths of time appointments may take to complete, there were some notable findings in terms of number of appointments taken by individuals.
Note that the names below are the top five insolvency appointments based on a search of records filed in the Companies Registration Office (CRO). Some firms share out appointments among different staff and records may not be up to date:
- Tom Murray, Friel Stafford (part of the IFAC group): 56 appointments
- Aengus Burns, Grant Thornton: 33 appointments
- Flavien Keily, Irish Liquidations: 33 appointments
- Michael Kennedy, Irish Insolvency: 28 appointments
- Micheal Leydon, Outlook Accountants: 27 appointments
- Gerard Murphy, Gerard Murphy & Company: 27 appointments
Root-cause analysis
Continuing the quarterly series of articles following recent audit monitoring reviews, this quarter the ACCA compliance team returned to the root causes of deficiencies identified by firms following a monitoring review. The web page also gives a link to provide feedback on the communications from the audit compliance team.
