Revenue has published a new manual containing guidance on section 83DB SDCA 1999. This new section, introduced in Finance Act 2022, provides a partial repayment of stamp duty where residential property is let under a qualifying lease, including lettings to a housing authority or other approved housing body. The new section amalgamates two pre-existing schemes under sections 83E and 83F SDCA 1999 (both now repealed).

Revenue has updated its Tax and Duty Manual on claiming the rent tax credit. The guidance now includes further information for taxpayers using ROS and those using MyAccount. There is also further information on obtaining the Residential Tenancies Board registration number and for landlords who prefer to report directly to Revenue.

Revenue has published a new manual providing guidance on the new online Non-resident Landlord Withholding Tax (NLWT) system. This system will be operational from 1 July 2023. Finance Act 2022 introduced key changes to the withholding tax provisions for non-resident landlords. Whilst the withholding tax requirement has been a long-standing albeit much maligned feature of Irish tax legislation, collection agents or tenants paying directly to landlords are no longer chargeable persons. The new NLWT system will enable tenants or collection agents to make Rental Notifications when making payments to the non-resident landlord. The notification and accompanying payment need to be submitted within 21 days of the rental payment.

The Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme (TBESS) guidelines have been updated in line with the Finance Act 2023 changes. Chartered Accountants Ireland advocated for these changes back in February. The key changes are the extension of the scheme to 31 July 2023, a reduction in the energy costs threshold to 30 percent, and an increase in the overall payment to 50 percent of eligible costs.

The National Economic Dialogue (NED) 2023, is taking place today, 12 June, in Dublin Castle. The theme of the forum, hosted by both the Department of Finance and Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, is “the economy in 2030: enabling a sustainable future for all.” The NED provides a forum for public consultation and discussion ahead of Budget 2024 later this year. The Institute is being represented at the forum by Cróna Clohisey, Tax and Public Policy Lead. Further information on the event including a link to the livestream can be found on gov.ie. We will provide members with information from the event in Tax News next week.

On 8 June the Ulster Society hosted a webinar in partnership with British Business Bank addressing the issue of sustainability, and the responsibilities upon businesses and their advisers in meeting sustainability targets. This presentation by Julia Groves covered the basics of net zero and carbon accounting, the broader consideration of environmental, social and governance factors in business decision, why SMEs should take action, what they can do and how the British Business Bank is involved. A recording of this webinar is available to view HERE A pdf copy of Julia's slides is available HERE  

Employers seeking qualified accountants should consider recruiting from outside the EEA through the Critical Skills Employment Permit, writes Emma Richmond With Ireland now at close to full employment, employers are increasingly facing challenges in recruiting suitably qualified staff to meet their needs. One area in which this challenge is becoming acute is in accountancy and finance.  However, it doesn’t have to be that hard! One solution to tackle this is to broaden the recruitment pool by availing of a work permit to bring in a non-EEA worker to meet the requirement. In recent times, there has been an increase in work permit applications from accountancy firms and, particularly those relating to suitably qualified audit staff. Figures published by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment show that, so far this year, almost 700 work permits have been issued in the finance sector. Through the Critical Skills Work Permit, Irish government policy has strategically targeted the sectors most in need.  The Government is using this permit to attract highly skilled people into the labour market where there are identifiable skills shortages, and with the aim of the holders taking up permanent residence in the State.  The list of roles designated for a Critical Skills Work Permit is updated on a biannual basis following consultation with stakeholders with the aim of ensuring that the permit system is meeting the demands of the market at any given time. The Critical Skills Employment Permit is the ‘golden ticket’ of work permits. It is available to individuals for a role with a minimum salary of €64,000 or where the role is listed on the Critical Skills Employment List and there is a minimum salary of €32,000.  The advantage of this permit is that it offers a spousal permit to any spouse of the holder of the work permit. From the time of their arrival in Ireland, the holder will also begin gaining residency recognition for a future citizenship application. These elements make this type of permit very valuable and attractive to non-EEA nationals looking to relocate to Ireland on a permanent basis. The more common work permit applications processed for accountancy firms relate to the following roles:  qualified accountants with at least three years’ auditing experience; chartered and certified accountants and those specialising in regulation, solvency or financial management; and taxation experts specialising in tax compliance. These roles are all listed on the Critical Skills Employment List and, as such, these permits are granted with relative ease once all the necessary proofs and details have been provided in the application. The current processing time is two to three weeks from the date of application.  It is worth noting that, depending on nationality, prospective employees may still need to apply for a visa if they are coming from a visa-required country, and this should be factored into the lead time when recruiting by this means. The Critical Skills Work Permit provides a fast and effective way of bridging the gap between the demand for suitably qualified accountancy staff and the supply.  Emma Richmond is a Partner with Whitney Moore

Three new reporting requirements are pushing nature and biodiversity up the ESG agenda. Orla Delargy explains why Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) topics are currently top of mind in business and finance. Climate change has dominated under the ‘E’ of ESG, but nature and biodiversity are catching up. Three developments have helped drive the momentum: the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the new Global Biodiversity Framework. Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures    The latest Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) status report found that over 3,800 organisations support the TCFD and are working towards TCFD-aligned reporting. The question is whether the newer Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) will follow the same path, and whether nature-related disclosures will become mandatory in certain jurisdictions.  Like the TCFD framework, the TNFD proposes disclosures across four pillars: Governance – the organisation’s governance around nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities; Strategy – the actual and potential impacts of nature-related risks and opportunities for the organisation’s businesses, strategy and financial planning where such information is material; Risk & impact management – how the organisation identifies, assesses and manages nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities; and Metrics & targets – the metrics and targets used to assess and manage relevant nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities where such information is material. Relatively few organisations have started incorporating biodiversity into their broader ESG governance and strategy. However, over 200 organisations are piloting the TNFD guidance and there is a public consultation currently open, with the first full version of the framework expected in September 2023.  Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive  Where the TNFD is a global, voluntary framework, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is EU-specific and mandatory. The CSRD significantly expands the existing rules on non-financial reporting, with close to 50,000 companies across Europe likely to be affected in the coming years.  The CSRD disclosure requirements on biodiversity go much further than the previous reporting directive, requesting information on biodiversity metrics, policies and targets. Again, organisations are asked to identify and assess material impacts, risks and opportunities that relate to biodiversity, and the TNFD is explicitly referenced.  Crucially, organisations are asked to disclose whether they have a transition plan in line with the new Global Biodiversity Framework, agreed during the UN conference in Montreal in December 2022. Global Biodiversity Framework  The overarching vision of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) is no net loss of biodiversity by 2030, net gain from 2030 and full recovery by 2050. The GBF sets out a plan for the next decade, with four long-term goals and 23 targets, spanning a wide range of topics including spatial planning, nature restoration, invasive alien species, agriculture and climate change. Although almost all the targets are relevant to the private sector, Target 15 stands out. It asks countries to take measures to ensure that organisations assess and disclose their risks, dependencies and impacts on biodiversity. The question is how national governments will interpret this and what measures they will take.  How organisations can use the frameworks Organisations will be encouraged to see the degree of alignment and overlap between emerging frameworks such as the TNFD, CSRD and GBF. The challenge is to get familiar with these frameworks and, crucially, get started now.  As many of the frameworks discussed above are still in development, it is tempting to adopt a ‘wait-and-see’ approach. However, organisations can progress training and capacity building now. This is a new topic for many people but getting informed is the prerequisite for taking the right actions. Orla Delargy is an Associate Director with KPMG

As cyber security comes increasingly under threat, Michael Rooney outlines how businesses can deal with a cyber attack  Accountancy firms are a rich target for hackers because of the types of documents they handle. Beyond the normal personally identifiable information (PII) that they store for clients and employees, accountancy firms also deal with sensitive information on financial transactions, payroll and business affairs. Without a good cyber security strategy, businesses affected by an attack can incur serious costs, including remediation of the security breach, reputation damage and data privacy compliance penalties.  The steps you take after a breach can either increase or reduce the impact. Not having a cyber security response plan can lead to you paying much higher costs due to a delayed reaction. In its Cost of a Data Breach Report 2022, IBM estimated the average global cost of these incidents at €4.43 million. But organisations with a tested incident response plan can reduce that by €2.71 million, a saving of 39 percent. Here are seven steps accountancy firms should take immediately following the discovery of a data breach, ransomware incident or another attack to minimise its impact. 1. Disconnect infected devices from your network Many types of malware are designed to spread throughout a network as fast as possible. This is especially true for ransomware, which locks users out of their files using encryption.  As soon as you discover that a breach has occurred, disconnect the infected device(s) from your network. This includes disconnecting the device from Wi-Fi and any hardwired ethernet connections. You shouldn’t necessarily shut off the device’s power until you’ve spoken to an IT professional. But you should isolate it from other systems, including any syncing cloud services. 2. Have a professional assess the damage Don’t try to deal with a cyber breach yourself or download a free virus scanning tool (it could actually be a malware trap). Instead, once your machine has been isolated, get a trusted IT provider to assess the damage and provide guidance.  3. Remediate the infection  Once the breach is assessed, your IT security expert will begin remediating the breach. This will secure your network so your client files or sensitive business information isn’t stolen while you’re dealing with the fallout.  4. Determine whether client data was breached Find out what type of data was compromised e.g. client database, sensitive cloud documents. It is important to determine the extent of the breach so you can notify impacted third parties (such as your clients) whose data might have been exposed. 5. Contact accountancy enforcement and the police Report the incident to accountancy enforcement and the police. This has several benefits: You have a record of the incident for any potential insurance claims. Accountancy enforcement can track the breach, which may connect to others that have been reported. Your police report can be referred to in data privacy compliance reports and this shows responsibility on the part of your organisation. 6. Carry out a notification plan according to data privacy requirements Review the data privacy regulations that your office is subject to, such as General Data Protection Regulation, and notify third parties in accordance with these guidelines. If notification isn’t made in a timely manner, it can lead to penalties, as well as a significant loss of trust in your business. 7. Improve defences to stop future breaches Reinforce your defences by having a cyber security assessment performed. This can help an IT provider pinpoint specific weaknesses in your network that need to be fortified to ensure this type of attack doesn’t happen again. Michael Rooney is Managing Director of FutureRange   

Welcome to this week’s Technical roundup. In developments this week, IAASA previously published a guidance note on Reporting to the Director of Corporate Enforcement in 2019. The guidance note has been re-published with updated referencing arising from the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Act 2021, updated ISAs and other relevant legislation; from 11 June 2023, the CRO will require the submission of a company director’s Personal Public Service (PPS) Number when completing certain forms related to their organisation. Read more on these and other developments that may be of interest to members below. Financial Reporting The IASB is expected to publish a Request for Information (RFI) on its Post-implementation Review (PIR) of IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers during June 2023. The standard has been effective for UK companies in scope since annual periods commencing on or after 1 January 2018. The objective of the IASB’s PIR is to assess whether the effects of applying the new requirements on users of financial statements, preparers, auditors, and regulators are as intended when the IASB developed those new requirements. The UK Endorsement Board is expected to publish a Draft Comment Letter (DCL) to the IASB to obtain stakeholder views. In addition, to understand stakeholder views on the implementation of IFRS 15 by UK companies, the UKEB is holding dedicated roundtables for preparers on Tuesday 20 June and Wednesday 21 June. Audit IAASA previously published a guidance note on Reporting to the Director of Corporate Enforcement in 2019. The guidance note has been published with updated referencing arising from the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Act 2021, updated ISAs and other relevant legislation. The FRC has recently published revisions to proposed International Standard on Auditing (UK) 505 – External Confirmations. The revisions reflect recent enforcement findings as well as ensuring that the standard reflects modern approaches to obtaining confirmations, with additional material on the use of digital platforms, enhanced requirements in relation to investigating exceptions and a prohibition on negative confirmations.   Other news Sustainability European Sustainability Reporting Standards. In the second of our series on EU sustainability reporting, Dee Moran, Chartered Accountants Ireland and Orla Carolan, Director in Grant Thornton demonstrated how to navigate the content and disclosures included in the first set of ESRSs, what undertakings should do to prepare for implementation, and how to understand more about the requirements of the CSRD. Watch the recording here. CRO updates Mandatory online filing for certain Companies Registration Office forms from Sunday 11 June.  From 11 June 2023, the Companies Registration Office will require the submission of a company director’s Personal Public Service (PPS) Number when completing certain forms related to their organisation. With the commencement of section 35 of the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Act 2021, the CRO will now require a director’s PPS number to be included in the below filings: Form A1- An application made to incorporate a company Form B1 - An annual return of a company of which they are a director. This information will be required for all directors of the company Forms B10/B69 - A notice of change of directors or secretaries by a company of which they are a director. For more information on these requirements, including the Verification of Identity process, visit the CRO website or contact them by email and read here the news item from DETE on Minister Calleary’s announcement of the new identity verification requirements for company directors. The Pensions Authority has reminded trustees that pension schemes must be wound up by the relevant deadline or meet the new standards under the Pensions Act. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is hosting a Trade Horizons Conference on the benefits of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) for Irish businesses, particularly SMEs, on 6 July 2023. There will be discussion on discuss evolving trade policy including the increased opportunities offered by FTAs and the government supports available to help access them. The European Union (Cross-Border Conversions, Mergers and Divisions) Regulations 2023 (“Regulations”) were signed into force by the Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment on 24 May 2023. The Regulations give effect to an EU directive on cross-border conversions, mergers and divisions and introduces for the first time an EU harmonised framework available to in-scope companies for cross-border conversions and divisions. The Regulations apply to Irish limited companies which can now avail of enhanced and harmonised EU regime allowing them to convert and divide across other EEA jurisdictions. You can read some brief background from DETE on the Directive and its implementation here. Financial Stability Review Risks to financial stability stemming from the rest of the world have increased, while the Irish economy has proved resilient to the inflationary shock so far, the Financial Stability Review published on 7 June 2023 by the Central Bank of Ireland shows. The report outlines the Central Bank’s assessment of key risks facing the financial system, the resilience of the economy and financial system to adverse shocks, and policy actions to safeguard stability. In his opening remarks, Governor Gabriel Makhlouf said a recurring theme of these Reviews in recent years has been the sheer level of uncertainty owing to the interlocking shocks of the pandemic, Russia’s war against Ukraine and the current inflationary episode alongside the speed with which these events have unfolded and transmitted across the globe. For further technical information and updates please visit the Technical Hub on the Institute website.                                  

  In this week’s Sustainability/ESG bulletin, read about Chartered Accountants Ireland’s involvement in the business-led Green Pearse Street campaign, and how a sustainable future will be the focus for the 2023 National Economic Dialogue. Also covered is ISIF’s commitment to Just Climate's $1.5 billion fundraising to addresses the Net Zero challenge at scale, how Ireland is at risk of not meeting EU waste targets, and the increase in Northern Ireland’s use of renewable energy, as well as the usual useful resources, podcasts, articles and events. Chartered Accountants Ireland and business-led Green Pearse Street campaign  Chartered Accountants Ireland is a founding member of a new group, Green Pearse Street, which launched last week. Green Pearse Street comprises a diverse group of local businesses and organisations on and near Pearse Street, one of Dublin’s longest streets, stretching from Ringsend to College Green. The aim of the new campaign is to ‘green’ the street, improve the air quality, create a health and biodiversity corridor, and more social space for people. The campaign launch, covered by Independent.ie, Dublin Live and others, coincides with EU Green Week, the EU's annual event to showcase the bloc's climate projects and policies, which run from Saturday 3 June and Sunday 11 June. ‘A sustainable future’ the focus for 2023 National Economic Dialogue The discussions at the 2023 National Economic Dialogue are to focus around the theme of ‘enabling a sustainable future’ for all for the economy in 2030, it has been announced this week. A breakout session of the event - “Charting a sustainable path towards achieving our National climate action objectives”- is to be chaired by Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan T.D. The National Economic Dialogue, which will take place on 12 June, is the principal institutional forum for public consultation and discussion on the Budget. Hosted jointly by the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, it provides a deliberative forum for stakeholders to participate in an open and inclusive exchange on the competing economic and social priorities facing the government. Representatives from Chartered Accountants Ireland will participate in the event. Ireland Strategic Investment Fund addresses the Net Zero challenge at scale The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has reported that Just Climate, an investment business created by former US Vice President Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management, has announced the closing of its inaugural $1.5 billion fund, ‘Climate Assets Fund I’. The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) was a member of the fund’s founding investor group, which also include Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund and Harvard Management Company. The Fund, which exceeded its $1 billion target, will be part of Just Climate’s industrial climate solutions focus and will pursue investments which have the potential to deliver ‘transformational climate impact’ across some of the highest-emitting, hard-to-abate industries. Commenting, Paul Saunders, head of climate for ISIF, reportedly explained that “[t]he extent and urgency of the climate challenge require ISIF and other major investors to work together to drive innovation in climate action. We believe this initiative is a major step forward in sustainable investing and increasing the capital available to target high-impact areas in the shift to a low-carbon economy.” Ireland at risk of not meeting EU waste targets Ireland is one of 18 Member States identified in a report published this week by the European Commission as being at risk of not meeting the 2025 preparing for re-use and recycling targets for municipal and all packaging waste and the 2035 landfilling target. In the report the Commission presented recommendations to the Member States, building on continuous financial and technical support provided for improving performance on waste management, and covering a broad range of actions from reducing non-recyclable waste to increasing reuse, improving governance, deploying economic instruments and awareness-raising. The factsheet for Ireland states that while Ireland is on track to meet the 2025 recycling target for all packaging waste and is likely to meet the 2035 target for landfilling of municipal waste, it is at risk of missing the 2025 target for reuse and recycling of municipal waste. Increase in Northern Ireland’s use of Renewable Energy The percentage of total electricity consumption in Northern Ireland generated from renewable sources (48.5 percent) has increased by 4.6 percentage points in the 12-month period April 2022 to March 2023 compared to the previous year. This is according to a report, published this week by the Department for the Economy, which aids reporting on performance against the commitments in the Northern Ireland Energy Strategy ‘Path to Net Zero Energy’ and the Climate Change Act target which is to “ensure that at least 80% of electricity consumption is from renewable sources by 2030.” The full report is available on the Electricity Consumption and Renewable Generation Statistics page on the Department’s website.  World Environment Day Monday 5 June was World Environment Day, the United Nations day which celebrates environmental action and the power of governments, businesses and individuals to create a more sustainable world. Led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and held annually since 1973, this year’s World Environment Day focussed on global solutions to combat plastic pollution.             Resources Chartered Accountants Ireland - Further your knowledge about the European Sustainability Reporting Standards. In the second of our series on EU sustainability reporting, Dee Moran, Chartered Accountants Ireland and Orla Carolan, Director in Grant Thornton demonstrated how to navigate the content and disclosures included in the first set of ESRSs, what undertakings should do to prepare for implementation, and how to understand more about the requirements of the CSRD. Watch the recording here.  The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) hosted a Business Briefing on 'Reduce Your Use' in May. The topics explored included the Climate Toolkit for Business, the benefits of an Energy Audit, Electric Vehicle supports and more. Watch the recording. Podcast ‘Green skills for all’ Five Degrees of Change, the Business Post's energy and environment podcast sponsored by PwC, interviewed Andrew Brownlee, chief executive of Solar, the Irish state agency responsible for further education and training (Listen) Articles Global greenhouse gas emissions at 'all-time high' (Irish Times) What exactly counts as a carbon credit? (Bloomberg) Singapore launches carbon exchange despite market’s greenwashing scandals (Financial Times) Green accountancy guide to aid 'investor-grade' greenhouse gas reporting (GreenBiz) ESG an “immense” market for mid-tier accounting firms to tap into (AccountancyAge) Upcoming Events   The Northern Ireland Energy Summit Delivered in partnership with the Department for the Economy and the Centre for Advanced Sustainable Energy (CASE), the Northern Ireland Energy Summit will take place at the ICC, Belfast, on Wednesday 21 June 2023. The event will focus on building an informed consensus on how best to take Northern Ireland forward in meeting its renewable energy targets and net zero ambitions, whilst driving 10X economic growth across innovation, sustainability and inclusion. 21 June CSRD: striving for consistent and quality sustainability assurance engagements across the EU Accountancy Europe is inviting key stakeholders to exchange on their expectations for assurance engagements, the practical implications of the CSRD assurance requirement and the role of the assurance standard. This event is in person and by invitation only. For more information, contact events@accountancyeurope.eu. 5 July Network for Chartered Accountants working on ESG projects Are you a Chartered Accountant working in ESG or working on ESG-related projects? Would you like an opportunity to engage with other Chartered Accountants working in this space to share insights, challenges and opportunities? Chartered Accountant now has a network to allow members working in sustainability/ESG to meet and discuss all matters of interest re ESG and accounting. 3rd or 4th Wednesday of every month Next: 28 June, 2023  14.00-15.00/30 Chartered Accountant House/Teams If you would like to attend please email sustainability@charteredaccountants.ie   You can find information, guidance and supports to understand sustainability and meet the challenges it presents in our online Sustainability Centre.  

Níall Fitzgerald, Head of Ethics and Governance, shares his insights from the 11th Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Anti-Corruption and Integrity Forum (the ‘Forum’), which was held in Paris on 24–25 May 2023. The theme of the forum was “Action to impact, working together to strengthen integrity and fight corruption” and the issues addressed impact a range of policy areas and disciplines practised by professional accountants, including governance, responsible business conduct, taxation, investor and public confidence, reporting, risk management and compliance, and many others. Discussions took place on the stage and on the fringes amongst delegates and speakers where anti-corruption and integrity strategies, measures and implementation experiences across public and private sectors were openly shared.  Some of my key takeaways from the forum include: The evolving anti-corruption and integrity challenges: The opening remarks highlighted the evolving anti-corruption and integrity challenges of our time, including geopolitical instability and threats to democracy such as undue foreign influence and kleptocracy, the increasing polarisation of society and erosion of public trust because of disinformation, leadership failures and division, and the disconnect between anti-corruption commitments made and the measures that get implemented. Until recently the dialogue around corruption focused mainly on bribery, but now we face many forms of it from grand corruption on a global scale being executed in a strategic and co-ordinated way to other more common and smaller opportunistic frauds. The accountancy profession: Professional accountants play a significant role in detecting and preventing corruption, creating robust risk-based compliance systems, and improving the relationship between transparency and integrity through reporting and assurance. Some contributors cautioned that such actions can quickly become ineffective if not kept up to date with the fast-evolving ways and means of committing fraud. There were also some concerns that outdated systems or those with ineffective oversight can become enablers by allowing corruption to flourish undetected beneath a veneer of compliance. However, reporting and transparency are seen as key to promoting integrity. A memorable quote in this regard was “To achieve trust we need to reveal truth and transparency”! Technology for good, technology for bad: Many insights were shared on how technology is used to combat fraud and corruption, including what tools, if any, could be used and in what circumstances to use them. Digitalisation, artificial intelligence and data analytics were described as enablers and detractors in the detection and prevention of corruption and safeguarding the integrity of data. There was a lot of discussion about blockchain and tools that perform data analytics, text scraping, risk and data mining, network analysis and automated functions (e.g. bots). Fundamentally, it is not the tool that may be good or bad, rather how it is used, the integrity of its coding and how the output is interpreted. It is not good practice to invest in sophisticated tools without addressing the basic need of ensuring the integrity of the underlying data (e.g. that the data is relevant, reliable, organised and complete) or consider how the results will be interpreted. Contributors shared experiences that warned of the importance of testing for false positives generated by data analytic tools, the need to accurately define the problem to be addressed before deciding what, if any, tool is required, to focus on the weaknesses as well as the strengths during the selection of  tools during the procurement process (you don’t want to find out too late what it can’t do), and to perform a rigorous risk assessment in advance of implementing a tool. When it comes to assessing the risks and benefits of employing technology, the Devil is not just in the detail, but also in the coding!  Culture matters most: Corruption is essentially driven by human behaviour but enabled by many tools, schemes and systems. Humans are considered to have achieved many great feats, including finding water on Mars, and developing artificial intelligence, but we have still not managed to eradicate corruption. Industry leaders and regulators discussed their responses to combat corruption, including examples of measures taken to create a culture of integrity. Some key highlights from discussions around culture include: If organisations want to be trusted, then they must make integrity part of the strategy The right tone from the top is required, including leaders who are open and feel safe talking about corruption; acknowledging the complexities and that addressing corruption requires a multifaceted approach across the organisation Embedding responsibility for an organisation’s anti-corruption strategy across all areas of the business, ensuring it is not seen solely as a compliance function’s responsibility Include anti-corruption and integrity as factors to be considered in decision-making across the organisation, whether significant investment decisions, procurement choices or making sales A multi-stakeholder approach is essential for any integrity strategy. The main product of relationship building is trust and starting a dialogue is the early stages of developing this. Stronger collaboration: The importance of collaboration between the public and private sectors is essential to effectively combat corruption. This collaboration is evident at many levels for professional accountants, for example compliance with anti-money laundering and terrorist financing requirements. Discussions also emphasised how collaboration within both these sectors is as important for combatting corruption as for promoting integrity. This can include greater co-operation between government agencies in the public sector and competitors working together in the private sector to develop common best practice or deliver initiatives that tackle industry- or sector-specific corruption and promote greater integrity and trust.  Prevention is better than cure: Delegates heard some harrowing accounts of the human, societal and financial costs of corruption. The stakes are also considerably higher for organisations and the risks of corruption are strategic, operational and reputational. The governance required needs to be proportionate and relevant to the needs and resource flows of the organisation in the context of financial, social and human capital. Risk assessment is an important mechanism for an anti-corruption strategy, and there was an emphasis on reviewing and drawing conclusions from observing what people do, not just what they report. Many forum participants were forthcoming, sharing lessons learned from previous crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2008 financial crash. The case was convincing that prevention is better, and cheaper, than cure. Recovering, rebuilding and reforming with integrity in Ukraine: Government representatives of Ukraine, Deputy Speaker Oleksandr Korniyenko and Deputy Minister Serhiy Derkach, discussed plans to rebuild their country and how they are going to do so by driving corruption out of the system. They see this as essential for earning the trusty of a traumatised nation and ensuring that Ukraine is built back better than before is the least the people deserve. There was an open invitation for compliance experts and advisors to help Ukraine in this endeavour by providing anti-bribery and corruption training and assisting with the development of robust compliance systems. In addition, I spoke with several industry leaders and experts at the forum and members can expect to hear more from us on other topical issues such as beneficial ownership transparency, combatting corruption in the supply chain, support for the proposal to recognise “zero corruption” as the 18th sustainable development goal, and, in the sphere of sustainability reporting, the current practices and developments in anti-corruption reporting. These additional resources will be made available on the Chartered Accountants Ireland Ethics Resource Centre and/or the Governance Resource Centre in due course.  Members can access further details and recordings of some of the sessions from the forum on the OECD website.   A useful list of resources referred to at the forum include: OECD Public Integrity Indicators: A benchmark government measure to combat corruption and promote integrity, comparing government commitments to actions. Ireland and the United Kingdom are included in the data. Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI): A scoring based on the results of a series of corruption surveys and assessments measuring the perceived level of public sector corruption across approximately 180 countries. OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions: Establishes legally binding standards to criminalise bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions and provides for a host of related measures that make this effective. It is the first and only international anti-corruption instrument focused on the ‘supply side’ of the bribery transaction. Ireland and the United Kingdom are signatory countries. Understanding Anti-Corruption Reporting: Published by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and Transparency International UK, this report reviews anti-corruption corporate reporting by the largest publicly traded companies and highlights the urgent need for enhanced quality, reliability and comparability in this crucial area. It also raises a series of policy questions around jurisdictional differences, comparability, governance and the completeness and reliability of the information provided.  Stepping up the Game, Digital Technologies for the Promotion of the Fight Against Corruption – a Business Perspective: This OECD report provides an overview of various digital tools and how they are applied in practice and examples of how companies are deploying digital technology in corporate compliance and anti-corruption efforts. The Blue Dot Network: A voluntary certification scheme based on quality infrastructure standards as set out in the G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment, the G7 Charlevoix Commitment on Innovative Financing for Development, the Equator Principles and guidelines such as the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.