CHAPTER 24 - Academic and Professional Accounting Education on the Periphery of Europe: Context, Content and Prospect in the Republic of Ireland

Abstract

This chapter discusses the academic and professional accounting education on the periphery of Europe. Ireland occupies the most western point of the European continent. Economically, Ireland is positioned close to the bottom of the World Bank's league of industrial market economies. Ireland has an internationally well recognized system of primary, secondary, and tertiary education. The earliest Irish reference to auditors or accountants occurs in the records of the City of Dublin in the year 1316. The embryonic profession and the growth of trade and commerce stimulated a demand for greater attention to economic and commercial education within the universities. Accounting is now an important element of business education in Ireland. It is taught in a wide range of institutions at a variety of levels to diverse audiences. The largest of the professional accounting institutes, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland satisfies most of the tuition needs of its students through its Centre of Accounting Studies. The development of postgraduate accounting education at the universities in Ireland has been very slow. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland has almost total control of the public accounting market in Ireland. The members of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants subject to appropriate training in an audit environment are also permitted to practice as public accountants in Ireland but practices are small in size and number.