Format
This course will be delivered via Zoom on 15 October 2025 starting at 9.30am. The Zoom link will be emailed to participants the day before the course is due to take place
Who should attend
This course is suitable for accountants and other business professionals working in or advising the public sector.
Course overview
- Introduction/Keynote (Speaker TBC)
- AI in the Public Sector - Risks, Rewards, and Readiness
- Tony Hughes, co-founder of Run_Audit and Senior IT
Auditor Northern Ireland Audit Office
- Transitioning to Accruals Accounting: Navigating Change and Embedding Best Practice Elaine Stewart, Queen's Business School,
- Kevin O'Brien, Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation
Colette Drinan, Secretary and Director of
Audit
at the Office of the Comptroller & Auditor
General
Key Learning outcomes
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
Have advanced their understanding of key issues facing accountants and other business professionals in the public sector today.
Speaker Bio's
Tony Hughes - Tony has over 25 years' experience in Cyber Security, IT Auditing and Technology Risk, Governance and Compliance, holding positions such as Steering Committee member of the NI Cyber Cluster, Board Member and Trainer within ISACA Ireland, a member of the ISACA Emerging Trends Global Working Group, and a membership accreditor for the Chartered Institute for Information Security.
Holding many of the recognised qualifications in Information Security, he is also a holder of the Advanced Certificate in Investigatory Practices, specialising in digital evidence. His experience at senior level extends to cyber security strategy, incident response, and standards driven approaches to security in the public, private and academic sectors. Tony has written and contributed to a number of key Government Cyber Security strategies including those for critical national infrastructure and services.
He is a tutor on the ISACA CISA, CISM and CRISC qualifications and lectures for Chartered Accountants Ireland on their Certificate in Technology Risk and Data Incident Management. Tony is one of the founders of Run_Audit, an AI enabled audit software company, and is currently a Senior IT Auditor within the Northern Ireland Audit Office.
Elaine Stewart - Elaine is a Senior Lecturer and Programme Director for the Undergraduate Accounting pathway. She teaches first year management accounting and public sector accounting on the MSc Accounting and Finance. Her research interests include financial reporting reforms in UK and Irish central government; sustainability and climate change reporting in the public sector; and financial capability mechanisms in the not-for-profit sector.
Kevin O'Brien - Kevin is a Principal Officer within Government Accounting with responsibility for developing and advising on policy for accounting, financial management, risk management and internal audit for the central government area, including responsibility for C&AG Acts, Public Financial Procedures, the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies 2016, Corporate Governance in the Civil Service, State Boards Appointments and the Current Expenditure Public Spending Code.
Andy Harkness -
Andy is Director of Audit at the Office of the Comptroller & Auditor General (OCAG), with responsibility for financial audits in the semi-state, health, education and financial sectors. He is also responsible for the audit contracting programme and the Office's standards unit and audit insights programme. He is currently an observer on INTOSAI's financial audit and accounting sub-committee.
Andy has previously worked on a variety of audit portfolios at OCAG including the audit of central government departments and State bodies, and was previously Accounting Officer for the Office. He has specialised in governance, financial audit methodologies and financial reporting and auditing standards. He also served as a member of the Board of Audit of the European Stability Mechanism
Contact us
If you have any questions regarding this or any other CPD course or
requirements, please feel free to contact the team here or call us at (+353) 01 523 3930
Note for Legacy CPA Members
Members who joined Chartered Accountants Ireland following
the amalgamation on 1 September, please continue to book on the CPA Portal
here to ensure you receive your member
discount.
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