The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation signed Statutory Instrument No 510 of 2012, the European Union (International Financial Reporting Standards) Regulations 2012 on 13th December 2012. The Regulations allow companies which have opted to prepare IFRS individual and group accounts under sections 148 and 150 respectively of the Companies Act 1963, to change to preparing Companies Act individual and group accounts for a reason other than those already allowed by law. Companies availing of this provision may subsequently revert to preparing IFRS individual or group accounts. A change permitted by the Regulations may be made no more than once in every five years. The Regulations do not apply to the group accounts of a company whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market in the European Economic Area.
The Regulations apply to accounts for financial years ending on or after 13th December 2012, the date of the making of the Regulations.
A consequence of the making of the Regulations, which mirror recent changes made to UK company law, is that Irish companies which are ‘Qualifying Entities’ under Financial Reporting Standard (FRS) 101 Reduced Disclosure Framework, which was published by the Financial Reporting Council in November (see: http://www.frc.org.uk/News-and-Events/FRC-Press/Press/2012/November/FRC-announces-new-accounting-standards-for-the-UK.aspx), can now avail of the early adoption provisions contained in that FRS for financial years ending on or after 13th December 2012.