The qualification required being a Chartered Accountant (CAI), there are two main routes to entry (a) direct entry after secondary school level education (b) entry after completion of university degree or approved postgraduate program
To pursue Certified Public Accountant (CPA), you can apply through two main routes (a) direct entry after secondary school level education, (b) entry after completion of university degree or approved postgraduate program
THE DIRECT ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION OF ACCOUNTANCY IN IRELAND
Accountancy plays a pivotal role in delivering important professional services to all sectors of the economy. The accountancy profession provides equal important business services to the Irish economy as the direct impact of this profession encompasses all economic activity of the profession, and is quantified in terms of jobs, output and tax revenues.
CONTRIBUTION TO GDP
In Ireland, the accountancy occupation supported a GDP contribution of €12.9 billion in 2017. Where €9.7 billion was contributed to GDP by the work of in-house accountants within other Irish industries and other quarter of €3.2 billion was generated by the accounting industry itself.
CONTRIBUTION TO EMPLOYMENT IN IRELAND
In the year 2017, around 23,300 individuals were employed in the accounting, bookkeeping, and audit sector in Ireland. As data shows, there were also 37,900 in-house accountants working across many sectors of the Irish economy. The largest employer of in-house accountants by sector was wholesale and retail, which employed 6,600 accounting professionals, followed by the manufacturing and finance & insurance sectors, which employed nearly 6,000 accountants in 2017. The finance and insurance industry employs the highest proportion of accounting professionals across these wider sectors as a share of its total employment (6.4 percent). Other industries with notably high shares of accounting professionals include real estate (5.4 percent), the ICT sector (3.3 percent), and manufacturing (2.9 percent).
CONTRIBUTION TO TAX REVENUES
The accounting sector in the year 2017 raised €437 million of tax revenue for the exchequer of Ireland. It encompasses labor taxes such as income tax, PRSI, and USC, raised through the accounting industry’s workforce, as well as corporation tax, VAT, and taxes on production paid by the companies. An amount of €874 million was generated through the employment of in-house accountants in other industries. When combined with the accounting sector’s contribution, this brings the total direct tax impact of Ireland’s accountancy profession to €1.3 billion in 2017. The tax that is contributed is equivalent to 2.6 percent of all receipts of the Office of the Revenue Commissioners of Ireland in 2017. This sum is attributable to the employment, profits, and transactions that are directly supported by the accountancy profession.
THE MARKET FOR ACCOUNTANCY SERVICES
In 2017, businesses in Ireland purchased around €2.3 billion in external accounting services, which in return amounted to 0.6 percent of all B2B purchases in the Irish economy during that year. According to available data, Ireland’s financial sector was the biggest single purchaser of accounting services in 2017, spending €302 million. Hence, it is equivalent to 1.5 percent of all external purchases by the finance industry in that year. In aggregate, accounting services were highly in demand as they were driven principally by sectors such as finance, manufacturing, and wholesale and retail industries.