A new Government scheme offering free financial advice to struggling mortgage-holders has come under attack today.

Business leaders have welcomed the improved maths results being collected by almost 56,000 Leaving Certificate students this morning.

Nearly half of the country’s professional accountants are undecided over how they will vote in the upcoming referendum on the European Fiscal Treaty, while most feel Ireland will require a second bailout, according to a survey.

A ‘No’ vote on the fiscal compact treaty would be economic and financial suicide for Ireland, according to Friends First chief economist Jim Power.

VIABLE but vulnerable small businesses need loans to avoid closure, not skewed banking credit surveys, according to ISME chief executive Mark Fielding.

Dublin: The Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland and its outsourcing partner KOSI Corporation have been awarded two prestigious international contracts advising on the development of the Accountancy Profession in Africa.

A SURVEY of accountancy firms has returned an overwhelming verdict that the banks are not open for business and that the credit crisis for SMEs is worsening.

IRELAND fighting to hold onto its corporation tax rate sends a very strong signal to the international investment community, according to the chief executive of the US Chamber of Commerce.

The US Chamber of Commerce has said that "US firms will remain committed to Ireland only as long as Ireland remains committed to its competitive strengths".

THE emergence of the black economy is a very real threat to Ireland’s economic recovery, according to the president of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CPA).

The Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland has said that today's Budget is "a tax-gathering exercise with little stimulus".

THE luck of the Irish will help us get through the next few years, according to the chairman of Enterprise Ireland.

DURING the boom the Government ignited the flames by bringing in tax changes.

GOVERNOR of the Central Bank Patrick Honohan said last night the EU’s stability and growth pact, which sets out the budgetary guidelines for EU member states, failed to identify the excessive impact a slowdown in economic activity would have on the flow of taxes to the state’s coffers.

Dublin: The president of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland has called for a broadening of the business stream taught in second-level schools to include a stronger focus on the formal teaching of entrepreneurship.

IRELAND is not actuallyemerging from recession – with the minimum wage keeping the economy uncompetitive – according to a new survey of accountancy professionals.

THE chairman of the National Asset Management Agency, Frank Ryan has controversially questioned the auditing role of accountants in the run-up to the collapse of the banks which are currently transferring €80 billion in bad and doubtful loans to NAMA.

GROWING the knowledge economy will provide the long-term solution to Ireland’s economic problems, delegates at an accountants’ conference were told yesterday.

A conference taking place in County Kildare today will address how businesses can identify the steps necessary to recover and thrive after the recession.

Businesses seeking access to funds are being urged to look at alternative sources of income in light of the liquidity crisis facing the Irish banking sector.

THE Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland wants a fast-track Dáil debate on the Government’s proposal to act as guarantor on bank loans to small businesses.

The president of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland (CPA) has called on the Minister for Finance to clarify the commitment in the Nama Bill that banks will "increase their capacity" for borrowing to the SME sector by 10%.

Most accountants do not believe the banks are open for business in terms of releasing credit, a new survey has found.

HALF of the problems Ireland now faces are “our own making” and not solely the fault of banks and builders.

BANKS are not open for business and a lack of credit is crippling the country’s small firms. sector.

Discrimination in the Irish tax system against the self-employed is threatening entrepreneurship the president of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants has said.

THE Institute of Certified Public Accountants said it made an operating surplus of €153,490 in 2007.

Leading economist Jim Power has today accused the Government of “fiddling while the economy burns”.

LEADING players in the Irish economy expect 2008 to be a tough year for Irish business, according to a new poll.

THE Institute of Certified Public Accountants reported record growth numbers as 253 graduates were conferred with membership at the institute at the institute’s annual conferral ceremony in Dublin.

The Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CPA) has criticised the low increase in the VAT threshold for small business in the Budget.

AN island of Ireland corporate tax rate of 12.5% has been proposed by the country’s largest professional body of accountants.

MILTON FRIEDMAN, the free market economist who died last November, had little truck with the idea that businesses had responsibilities for anything other than making profits for investors.

ONE of the country’s leading economists expects the 2007 Budget to be expansionary and to deliver a surplus at the same time.

OVER-REGULATION of small and medium-sized companies has the potential to damage Ireland’s competitiveness if action is not taken quickly, according to the president of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CPA) in Ireland, Michael F Dolan.

BERNADETTE McGrory-Farrell, the former president of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland, has been appointed to the board of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC).

Conor Keane, Finance Editor

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has announced a review of the provision relating to Directors' Compliance Statements contained in the Companies Act, 2003.

The Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland has called for the establishment of a review group to examine the impact of regulation on the SME sector, which it said was becoming unreasonable and strangling Irish business.

Legal changes have had a significant effect on the way accounts manage clients and do business, according to a new survey from the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland.

ACCOUNTANTS’ salaries in Cork and Limerick are quickly catching up on pay levels in Dublin, according to new research commissioned by the Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

The Institute of Certified Public Accountants has appointed David FitzGerald as its new business development director.

THOMAS Crosbie Holdings has appointed Noel Wall to the position of group financial controller.

REDUNDANCIES will hit 30,000 this year, wiping out the benefits arising from the creation of new jobs, according to small business lobby group the Small Firms Association (SFA).