Why CAI is taking account of the global economy

INCOMING Chartered Accountants Ireland president, Brendan Lenihan, will represent 22,000 members in the year of its 125th anniversary.

“It is 50 years since the presidency has been based in Cork, back in 1963, partly because we are very proudly a 32-county body, and have been since 1888,” he says. “There has been a very strong rotation of the presidency, North and South, during that time. It is also a recognition of a very vibrant district society in Cork, which is also celebrating its 60th year.”

Chartered Accountants Ireland was established as the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, in 1888, to ‘watch over all of business/property in a faithful manner’ — which is still its ethos. “Although we might express them in slightly different words and think of the structures slightly differently, the same concepts propel us today,” Lenihan says. “It is very clear what the founders of our profession believed its objectives were, and it is good to be reminded of those.”