Work permits for accountants to support economic growth

Chartered Accountants Ireland: 'We are working with government to reduce the required Critical Skills Employment Permits application processing times'

Chartered Accountants Ireland elects new board leaders: Barry Doyle, vice president; Pat O’Neill, president; and Sinead Donovan, deputy president.

Ireland needs to accelerate work permit processing times to bring in overseas accountants to underpin the nation's economic growth, says Pat O’Neill, newly appointed president of Chartered Accountants Ireland.

Mr O’Neill said that, as a growing economy, if we cannot source sufficient accounting capacity from homegrown talent, we must ensure we attract the required talent into the country from elsewhere.

“It is my steadfast belief that people and businesses achieve great things when they come together and diversity of background and thought is key to any profession,” said Mr O’Neill.

“As an Institute, we have been working closely with government in the last few months to promote the need to reduce the required Critical Skills Employment Permits application processing times for accountants from outside the European Economic Area, who have already been hired by businesses and the profession to come and work here.

“The improvement now coming through in the processing time for such permits, as a result, has seen wait times reduced to 6-8 weeks from as high as four months. We must retain and even improve upon these shorter processing times to attract the right talent.” 

Capacity constraints

Elected at Chartered Accountants Institute’s AGM in Dublin, Mr O’Neill said Ireland urgently needs to tackle the continuing capacity constraints facing the profession.

He said Ireland’s economic pillars of large foreign direct investment and successful domestic businesses require appropriate levels of accounting talent; however, several structural factors are causing very real supply side issues, he added.

He also noted that the accounting syllabus at secondary level, introduced over 25 years ago, must be made fit for purpose in the 21st century. 

Otherwise, students will be deterred from a career in accounting, and we won’t have the “bench-strength” to support businesses on this island.  

Pat O’Neill has more than 30 years of experience as an audit partner with EY. He has significant involvement at Board level with many plcs providing insight and best practice around Boards’ risk and corporate governance agendas.

He has served on the council of Chartered Accountants Ireland since 2014. He is a former chair of the institute’s audit, risk and finance board; and former chair of its Leinster Society. He holds a Business Studies degree from University of Limerick.

At its AGM, Chartered Accountants Ireland members elected Sinead Donovan as deputy president and Barry Doyle as vice-president.