IAASA's proposals to revise Ireland's Ethical Standard for Auditors, International Standards on Auditing and Glossary of Terms

ACCA welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the proposals to issue revised versions of the Ethical Standard for Auditors (Ireland); certain International Standards on Auditing (Ireland) and the International Standard on Quality Control (Ireland) 1 (together the ‘ISAs (Ireland)’); and the Glossary of Terms, which defines the terms used in the Irish auditing framework.

We are pleased to note that the revised versions of these standards are based on the UK standards, which, in turn, reflect the corresponding standards issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) and the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) restructured Code of Ethics and Conduct (the Code).

ACCA was broadly supportive of the revised UK standards issued by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) on 17 December 2019 and the FRC’s initiatives in responding to the changing expectations of users of financial information following recent audit and corporate failures, the decline in audit quality as well as the other changes impacting the UK audit landscape. The
work undertaken by the FRC (and the IESBA) to restructure and simplify the Ethical standards is beneficial to auditors as well as the general public. However, we had some detailed concerns with some of the proposed changes to the UK standards and these were reflected in our response to the FRC Consultation on Revisions to Ethical and Auditing Standards 20191.

We welcome IAASA’s policy to make minimal amendments to the UK standards. We are supportive of the proposed revisions to the Irish auditing framework as these strengthen andimprove the clarity of the Ireland standards and should assist auditors to better understand the requirements, resulting in a higher level of compliance. However, we have identified some potential enhancements, and these are highlighted in our response where appropriate.

For more details please download the consultation response.