This month's issues features the Finance Dublin Accountancy Survey 2024. The 14.7 p.c. growth rate in fee income over the past year recorded by Ireland Top 20 Accountancy firms is five times the expected rate of growth of overall GDP this year, and that makes the accountancy industry a leading contributor, and an asset in the continuing success of the Irish economy. The growth of their contribution to the Irish economy can be seen by comparing the industry today, as depicted in this year's 2024 survey, with what it was when we in Finance Dublin/Finance Magazine, published the first such survey in December 1987.
Most of the accountants and tax advisers in the firms covered in the Survey would have been dismayed by the recent Apple judgement - and we provide a perspective in this edition, in the Irish Tax Monitor, quoting the Taoiseach's views on the matter. In our editorial on this we express the point that it, as a judicial decision, is subjective. It is also wrong in our opinion, indeed unjust, to also use the somewhat emotive term used by the relevant Commissioner in her comments on the Judgement. The ruling says it was a sweetheart deal done by the Irish Revenue Commissioners. The very nature of the (distinct) Irish legal system means that the Irish Revenue never did sweetheart deals, as part of its modus operandum, and to insist they did is not just inappropriate for the highest European court to have ruled, but indeed potentially a stain on their reputation as well.
The forthcoming Budget provides an opportunity to continue with the long term project of simplifying and improving the workings of the Irish tax system. In the Roundtable section of the Irish Tax Monitor, this month's Panel of 9 distinguished tax advisers contribute a comprehensive menu of practical suggestions, with the Participation Exemption prominent. The issue also features many more important ideas including the concepts articulated by Invest Northern Ireland's Steven Harper on the occasion of the launch of INI's new hub in downtown Dublin.
With a new political cycles beginning in the EU and ahead of elections in Ireland and the US, we assess the potential implications for Ireland's financial services industry. Already, change is signalled at EU level with the re-elected European Commission president signalling, in relation to the EU Green Deal, focus will shift to implementing existing laws rather than passing new ones.
We feature perspectives from thought leaders in the Irish industry on how the existing agenda is likely to be implemented, and to reflect on how it might change and evolve in the coming period. "Financial Services Regulation Review in the election year of 2024" provides a Symposium of views from 16 thought leaders on the critical regulatory issues for Irish FS, as the new electoral cycles begin both in Europe and at home in Ireland.
Also featuring in the issue are a number of assessments and observations on the Enria report on the McMenamin judgement of IFSAT. How this will roll out is seen as positive, expecially given the CBI's plans to implement the recommendations fully. This is also the topic of our editorial comment which says "The reassurance that now will flow from Governor Makhlouf's statements of acceptance of Enria's recommendations will be an important step in increasing confidence amongst international FS FDI investors about the Republic of Ireland as an investable jurisdiction".
Finance Dublin Yearbook 2024 - our annual publication that steps back and reviews the year past and 2024, and onwards, as it is evolving is published.
Already, despite the seismic changes underway in FS regulation we are looking to future developments, in an EU context as we look forward to an Irish EU Presidency in 2026, referenced in the interview in the Yearbook by newly appointed Financial Services Minister, Neale Richmond TD. It is a shop window of the industry referred to by Minister Richmond in his interview as follows: "what has been achieved in IFS is in many ways one of most successful partnerships between industry and Government in the history of Irish life".
These contextual changes are assessed in the Review and Outlook articles in the publication, featured here. This is just part of the evolving analysis that Finance Dublin delivers on a monthly basis.
The 2024 Yearbook profiles new entrants and updates the Finance Related Professional Services Guide of the Yearbook and the Directory sections to provide profiles of 538 companies and organisations and over 1,000 individual professionals and executives.
In this issue, as election news dominates in both of Ireland's nearest neighbours, and across the Atlantic in the USA, the cover feature provides a political and economic report on the state of the nation for the Republic, and what it means as Ireland enters the latter stages of its own election cycle, on foot of the momentouous European and Local Election results in the Republic of Ireland in June.
It concludes: 'the findings confirm indications that have been evident in the trends shown in opinion polls since late 2023 that the next election is the incumbent Government parties' to lose, and that a re-alignment of the centre parties Fianna Fail and Fine Gael (who together won over 50% of the seats in the local elections) in a coalition with independents or with smaller parties of the centre left is the likely political backdrop indicated in actual voting patterns, and, reflected in the trends identified in opinion polls.
In the latest issue: the 2024 Deals of the Year Awards, which celebrate the achievements of the Irish capital markets and corporate finance dealmaking and advisory community - detailed in 46 articles in the issue each profiling the deals that are recognised this year.
They show that despite the shifting market conditions, and increased uncertainty in the economic environment, the industry continues to show itself as adaptable and flexible, and capable of delivering the impressive achievements profiled in the report.
Elsewhere in the issue we look into the factors behind the leap for Dublin to 25th most important financial centre in an index ranking coveted by the top financial cities of the world, the Global Financial Centres Index of financial centres (GFCI).
Amongst these are the robust stability of the Irish economy, characterised by a surplus in the Exchequer - a not accidental situation that puts the Irish Government in a strong position ahead of the 2025 Budget, forthcoming, which will most likely be the last before the next general election. These are discussed in this month's editorial, and in articles in the Developments pages of the issue, and in the latest Irish Tax Monitor.
On the bread and butter issue of earning a living, new Minister of State in the Department of Finance Neale Richmond has hit the ground running setting out an emphasis on the potential for jobs in the financial services industry, in Dublin and the regions, and, in a welcome new point for the official agenda, the potential of moving up the value chain for an IFSC that has now reached maturity, emphasising the potential for expanded 'front office' activity in the future mix for the industry.
That future mix is rich and varied, with many aspects emphasised in the latest Action Plan for the Ireland for Finance Strategy, recently published. This plan, is an agenda for state agencies in the main, and emphasises sustainability this year, alongside other key aims, and sits alongside other plans emanating from Government, most importantly in the year to come in the area of taxation and expenditure, referencing a 'whole of government' approach for SMEs, such as that outlined by Deloitte's Tatiana Kelly.
There is also the Department of Finance's Funds Industry review, now underway in earnest, and other submissions, such as that for a branded Irish SPE vehicle, which IDSA's CEO Gary Palmer speaks about.
