It is with pleasure that I present the irish Auditing and Accounting supervisory Authority’s Profile of the Profession 2013, the purpose of which is to provide readers with an insight into:

• the scale and composition of IAASA’s supervisory remit regarding the nine Prescribed Accountancy Bodies (‘PABs’);
• the scale of the PABs, both individually and collectively;
• overall trends in the PABs’ membership, student numbers and profiles; and
• the nature and scale of the PABs’ regulatory and monitoring activities.

Additional information regarding IAASA’s supervision of the PABs will be available in Chapter 2 of IAASA’s 2013 Annual report.

Overall trends
At 31 december 2013:

• there were 32,641 PAB members resident in ireland, an increase of 3% from 2012, and the seventh continuous annual rise since 2006,
  the year in which we first collated these figures;
• the PABs’ aggregate student membership resident in ireland was 16,380, an increase of 1% on the previous year but a decrease of 7%
  since 2006;
• 3,423 PAB members located in ireland were authorised to provide accounting related services to members of the public; and
• the number of registered Audit firms located in ireland stood at 1,603 at 31 december 2013, a marginal increase from 1,597 at 31
  december 2012.

Acknowledgement
I acknowledge the efforts made by each of the PABs in compiling the information contained in this document and thank them for their cooperation in responding to IAASA’s queries.

To download the Profile of the Profession 2014 click here.

Helen Hall
Chief Executive
Irish Auditing & Accounting Supervisory Authority
Willow House
Millennium Park
Naas
Co Kildare
Ireland

Phone: +353 (0) 45 983 600
Fax: +353 (0) 45 983 601
Email: info@iaasa.ie