FINANCE Irish Accountancy Survey 2008: The golden era of uninterrupted double digit fee income growth by Ireland’s largest accountancy firms is showing signs of flagging, according to the results of the FINANCE Accountancy Survey 2008, which shows fee income of the twenty largest practices up by 11.0 per cent in the past year, a reduced rate of increase compared with the 19.6 per cent recorded in 2006/7.

Total fee income of the twenty largest practices in the country was €1,263.5 billion, compared with €1,137.8 billion a year earlier.

For the past five years, annual growth has ranged between 15 and 20 per cent, but, there has now been an interruption to the trend, particularly in the latter six months of the reporting period. And, judging by the comments of the country’s twenty largest managing partners in the survey the pattern for the coming months points further downwards.

The figures relate to the income figures of practices in year ends up to the middle of 2008. Not all firms share the same end years for their annual figures, and results cover year ends stretching through the first half of this year.The credit crisis and the associated economic downturn is blamed fairly and squarely for the decline, and the evident change in the shape of business, with corporate recovery, and insolvency coming to the fore for the first time in many years.

There will be some slowdown in recruitment as well, with the intake of professional and qualified graduate staff expected to suffer. However, the main firms on the other hand have no plans to cut their trainee intake, (See “Planned Recruitment” table at http://www.finance-magazine.com/) given that firms are taking a long term view on the growth of the industry.