Certified Accountant
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) is the relevant professional body for certified accountants in Ireland. It is a “Recognised Accountancy Body” under Section 191 of the Companies Act 1990. This entitles ACCA to grant Registered Auditor status to members meeting the requirements of the Act and the ACCA rules and to issue practising certificates within the meaning of Section 182 of the Companies Act 1990.
A Practising Certificate and Audit Qualification allows a member to do all general practice work such as accounting and tax compliance but also allows the member to accept audit appointments under S160 of the Companies Act 1963 and qualifies him/her under 187 of the Companies Act 1990 to be responsible for audit work. Please find link below to the ACCA’s website.
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
Procedures for Certified Accountants looking to register with the ACCA and provide audit services in Ireland
The individual’s practising certificate and audit qualification
To become audit qualified and obtain a practising certificate and audit qualification in Ireland the individual must:
• obtain ACCA’s recognised professional qualification (see
below); or
• meet the conditions as a statutory auditor in accordance with
regulation 24 of the European Communities (Statutory Audits)
(Directive 2006/43/EC) Regulations 2010 of the Republic of
Ireland and have passed an aptitude test (if applicable)
• be a third country auditor and meet the conditions as a
statutory auditor in accordance with Regulation 24 of the
European Communities (Statutory Audits)(Directive 2006/43/
EC) Regulations 2010 of the Republic of Ireland and have
passed an aptitude test (if applicable); or
• have previously held an equivalent certificate issued by ACCA.
Recognised professional qualification
To obtain the recognised professional qualification a member must have completed three years of practical training in a public practice with an ACCA Approved Employer – practising certificate development (audit), working either as an employee or sub-contractor, two years of which must be post-membership.
(Training obtained in a practice with ‘approved’ status granted by another Recognised Qualifying Body under the Irish Companies Act 1990 will not count unless the practice has also been registered and accepted by ACCA.)
The training must cover: audit, professional conduct, technical (accounting, business advice, development and measurement, taxation, and business assurance and internal review) and management. At least 44 weeks of training must be in audit work. This should include at least 22 weeks specifically in statutory audit.
Training must be obtained under the supervision of:
i) a member holding a practising certificate and audit
qualification; or
ii) any other person having, in the opinion of Council, adequate
qualifications and experience and who is a fully qualified
statutory auditor.
In addition, members must have completed the UK or Irish
variants of the following ACCA examinations:
• Paper 7, Advanced Audit and Assurance (or Paper 10,
Accounting and Audit Practice or 3.1, Audit and Assurance
Services under previous examination syllabi)
• The tax and law variants of the jurisdiction to which the audit
qualification applies.
• The adapted Paper P2, Corporate Reporting, if this paper was
completed on or after 1 January 2011.
The firm’s auditing certificate
A firm in Ireland (being a partnership, company, limited liability partnership* or a sole practitioner) that holds, or intends to hold, audit appointments will need to obtain audit registration from a Recognised Accountancy Body (RAB). ACCA is able to register firms in this regard through the mechanism of a firm’s auditing certificate.
[* Limited liability partnerships do not exist in the Republic of Ireland but a limited liability partnership in the UK may apply for a firm’s auditing certificate for the Republic of Ireland].
Applying for a firm’s auditing certificate
ACCA’s Global Practising Regulations (GPRs) provide the basis for ACCA’s compliance with the provisions relating to the registration of auditors in the Irish Companies Act 1990 and Regulation 24 of the European Communities (Statutory Audits)(Directive 2006/43/EC) Regulations 2010. The GPRs are published in the ACCA Rulebook. This legislation permits audit appointments to be held in the names of firms (sole proprietorships and partnerships) and incorporated firms (limited companies and, in the UK, limited liability partnerships), rather than in the names of individual partners/directors/members within those firms.
Firms wishing to act as registered auditors must obtain audit registration from an RSB or RAB, such as ACCA. ACCA is able to grant registered auditor status by means of the issue of firms’ auditing certificates.
A practising certificate and audit qualification is only valid for audit work being carried out in the relevant jurisdiction to which the certificate applies, for example Ireland or UK. Separate certificates will need to be held for each country in which the work relates but the individual (or firm) need not be located in that country.
For further information on providing audit services in Ireland, please see link below.
If you are a certified accountant looking to provide services in Ireland, and wish to register with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in Ireland, you may find more information in the links below.
Please find the contact details for the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in Ireland in the link below.
