News and events

University of Galway:  Accounting PhD Graduations, November 2022. Congratulations to our two Discipline of Accounting and Finance PhD graduates, Dr. Mike Farrell FCA (supervised by Breda Sweeney) whose thesis was entitled “The Relationship between Performance Measurement Systems and Organisation Ambidexterity” and Mara Sintejudeanu, PhD (supervised by Dr. Geraldine Robbins and Breda Sweeney) whose thesis was entitled “Governance, Management Control and Social Capital in Mandated Hospital Networks”  ‌

NUI Galway Introduce “Accounting Nuggets” Online Tutorials The Discipline of Accounting and Finance in the J.E. Cairnes School of Business & Economics at NUI Galway has recently launched “Accounting Nuggets”, a series of online tutorials for Leaving Cert Accounting students. The Explore funded project is a student-staff collaboration where a series of step-by-step guided online tutorials have been created to support students with bite-sized chunks of the Leaving Certificate Accounting syllabus. Team members consisted of lecturers Mary Barrett and Riona Lyons, Bachelor of Commerce students Rita Breen and Sarah Kelly, Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) students Patric Evason, Natasha Caulfield, Michael Loftus and Kelley Hession and Masters of Accounting student Owen Wyer.  The project team consulted with leaving cert students and secondary school teachers to select topics that students found most difficult at leaving cert level.  The online tutorials are an ideal support for anyone studying accounting for their Leaving Cert and can be accessed from the NUI Galway website at the following link www.nuigalway.ie/cairnes/leavingcert  The website also provides information on the career paths of many of our accounting graduates. ‌

Professor  Emer Mulligan, participated as an expert panellist at the recent public hearing of the EU Parliament’s tax sub-committee (FISC).  The hearing addressed “How to reinforce the regulation of intermediaries to create an intermediary sector that ensures a fair and user-friendly tax system?”.  Professor Mulligan emphasised the need to examine the extent to which existing regulation of tax intermediaries exists and is implemented successfully across the EU before considering new regulations or other EU wide solutions.  She also spoke about the important role of ongoing education and in particular how such education needs to better address the ethical aspects of taxation in practice along with wider theoretical and philosophical dimensions of tax and society. Mulligan highlighted the increasing role of the media in countering arguably unethical tax decisions and noted the need, albeit challenging, for any future EU wide approach to regulation to take account of the regulatory and cultural differences in the different member states. The event can be viewed on the following link: https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstreaming/fisc-committee-meeting_20220425-1345-COMMITTEE-FISC Also here is a link to the press release issued afterwards by the European Parliament’s press room. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20220425IPR27813/meps-hear-experts-about-regulating-tax-advisers /media/uncategorised/Emer-Linkedin-photo.jpg

Dr. Hilary Qualter was conferred with a PhD in Taxation.  Her research was supervised by Professor Emer Mulligan and co-supervised by Dr. Rachel Hilliard from the Discipline of Management. Hilary’s research examined tax policy participation in practice with a focus on Irish corporation tax policy.

In December 2020, Prof. Emer Mulligan participated in an international roundtable on Covid-19, Tax and their Related Impacts on Gender, in particular, on women, hosted by the Tax Administration Research Centre in Exeter University.  For an edited transcription of the roundtable which has now been published in the Journal of Tax Administration see http://jota.website/index.php/JoTA/article/view/290

On November 15th, Mary Cosgrove was an invited panelist on an event hosted by European Movement Ireland and BDO Ireland a webinar entitled “A New Deal on Corporation Tax”. The keynote speakers for the webinar were Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe T.D., and Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration. The panel discussion which was chaired by Suzanne Lynch of Politico Europe, also included Kevin Doyle, tax partner, BDO Ireland and Monica Loving, tax partner, BDO USA. The speakers and panelists, prompted by audience questions, discussed the implications of the recent OCED agreement on minimum corporate taxation and the re-assignment of taxing rights. They also considered the future of international and in particular carbon taxing. The event can be watched here .

Dr. Clare O’Dwyer, Galway was recently conferred with a PhD under J.E. Cairnes School of Business & Economics. Her research was supervised by Professor Breda Sweeney and co-supervised by Dr. Kathryn Cormican of the School of Engineering and Computer Science. Clare’s research was in Performance Measure Systems, Ambidexterity and Project Portfolio management.

Dr Ríona Lyons who was recently conferring with a PhD from the Discipline of Accountancy and Finance. Ríona is working in the Institute of Technology, Sligo.

John Power CEO Aerogen spoke to our postgraduate students on Master of Accounting, MSc in Corporate Finance and MSc in International Accounting & Analytics programmes on recent developments in Aerogen following the development of a teaching case by Breda Sweeney, Jonathan Levie and Esther Tippman.

Throughout the month of June, the Accountancy and Finance discipline at NUI Galway’s J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics held their annual ‘KPMG-led Summer School in Data and Analytics’ and their inaugural ‘Disruptive Technologies Summer School’. The summer schools are co-ordinated and delivered by academics and programme directors, and are on offer to students currently enrolled in all three of the postgraduate programmes within the department: The Master of Accounting; MSc in Corporate Finance; and MSc International Accounting and Analytics. Read more >> More information on the programmes offered by the discipline of Accountancy & Finance at NUI Galway can be found at http://www.nuigalway.ie/business-public-policy-law/cairnes/subjectareas/accountancy-finance/.

Thanks to Marion Kelly, Acting CEO Irish Banking Culture Board for a thought provoking and insightful guest lecture to our Discipline of Accounting and Finance postgraduate students on MSc in Corporate Finance, MSc in International Accounting and Analytics, and Master of Accounting in NUI Galway. Pictured below are Breda Sweeney, Marion Kelly and Patricia Martyn.

KPMG Prize Winners 2019 Congratulations to all of the National University of Ireland, Galway KPMG Prizewinners pictured below.  Names (L to R) are as follows: Dr Frank Conaty (NUIG), Prof Breda Sweeney (NUIG), Karen Collins (2nd Year BComm), Brian Fox (Final Year BComm Accounting), Aisling Higgins (2nd Year BComm), Laurence May (KPMG), Paula Leonard (KPMG), Anshu Puri (Final Year BComm Accounting – Global Experience), Jack O'Keefe (2nd Year BComm), Brian O'Malley (2nd Year, BComm), Sean Burke (Final Year BComm Accounting – Global Experience). Thanks to KPMG for their ongoing support of our programmes.  ‌

We are delighted to announce a series of appointments to our Accountancy and Finance Programme Boards. Such appointments reflect our close links with industry, locally, nationally and internationally, which allows us to ensure that our teaching is relevant to the fast-paced business world. BComm Accounting Board: - Robert White, Partner Real Estate Assurance EY Luxembourg - Sarah Finnegan, Tax Director Applegreen MSc in Corporate Finance Board: - Maurice O’Gorman, Partner Rocky Shore Partners - Gillian Buckley, Investment Manager WDC MSc in International Accounting & Analytics Board: - Laurence May, Partner KPMG and Head of KPMG Galway - Marie Joyce, CFO, NTR  ‌‌

Thanks to Dr Susan O'Leary, Royal Holloway University, London for presenting her paper 'Contemporary calls to action within NGO reporting practices: the constitution of humanitarian imaginaries' at our Accountancy & Finance seminar today in NUI Galway. A great discussion on use of social media to communicate performance and impact by NGOs.

Thanks to Tadhg Costello, Head of IFMS Project, National Finance Division, HSE for a great guest lecture to the MBA class today on Finance reform in HSE.

We were delighted to welcome Prof. Richard Bowen to NUI Galway, who delivered a talk on 'Ethics in the last (and next) financial crisis'

We were delighted to be shortlisted in the Excellence in Education and Training category at the Irish Accountancy Awards 2019 for our Summer School run in partnership with KPMG.

A very warm congratulations to  Frank Conaty on achieving his PhD.

A very warm congratulations to PhD graduate Patricia Martin,  who graduated in November 2018.‌

  Congratulations to all our  PwC winners who recieved their awards  on 29th October. Names (L to R) :  Florita Dolly (PWC), Gillian Lowth (PWC), Shane Fox (Final Year BComm International Experience), Karen Henry (1st Year BComm Accounting), Louise Egan (1st Year BComm Accounting), Raicheal Walsh (1st Year BComm Global Experience), John Dunne (PWC), Ciara Blackweir-Cadden (1st Year BComm Accounting), Dr Emer Mulligan (NUIG).

We were delighted to have PWC present to our for MSc (International Management) and MSc (International Accounting and Analytics) students on the topic of Data Analytics. The lecture was given by Keith Power, Director in Risk Assurance Practice, who covered the topic of Data Analytics and Alan Murphy, Senior Manager in Technology Consulting Practice, who covered the topic of Emerging Technologies.

We are delighted to host our inaugural KPMG summer school to  MSc in International Accounting and Analytics and Master of Accountancy students. 

Irish Accounting and Finance Winter Seminar that was delivered by Professor Teemu Malmi  hosted by NUIG Accounting Discipline in December 2018.   

Professor Breda Sweeney features in the Irish Times this week discussing how ambidextrous companies gain upper hand at innovation. Read her article here.

BComm  Graduate Marie Joyce, Chief Financial Officer, NTR plc spoke to our Accountancy Masters students this week. Her key takeaway - ‘The finance function is a key driver of analytics and plays a leadership role rather than a supporting role’.

KPMG Annual Prizegiving for 1st, 2nd and 3rd placed B.Comm (Accounting) students completed in May 2017. Well done to Patric Evason, Rebecca Palmer & Darren Dooley. ‌

A very warm congratulations to PhD  graduate Miguel Pérez,  who graduated in June 2017.  ‌    

A very warm congratulations to PhD  graduate Loredana Smaldore,  who graduated in March  2017. 

A lively and stimulating debate on pensions and tax took place in the National University of Ireland, Galway on 10th and 11th April 2017. As part of WP 4 of the FairTax research project, Dr Emer Mulligan brought together pension and tax experts from the Netherlands and Ireland to compare the two pension systems, and analyse the relationship of the taxation system in each country with its pension system. Click here for more information about this event.

NUI Galway has announced an innovative collaboration with KPMG on a new Masters programme, the MSc in International Accounting and Analytics, and the appointment of Laurence May, Audit Director at KPMG, as Adjunct Professor in Accounting and Finance at the J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics at NUI Galway. The MSc in International Accounting and Analytics is the first of its kind in Irish and UK universities to offer practical, hands-on modules in SAP and audit analytics for accountants and is targeted at both prospective and early to mid-career accountants. Key features of the programme include: an internationally recognised SAP Certification; the KPMG-led Summer School on Audit and Accounting Analytics and Cognitive Technologies using KPMG software and tools; the development of professional skills for the workplace; and membership of the ACCA Accelerate Programme which offers specialist networking advice, CV workshops, and access to the global ACCA community. Read more here

Mary Cosgrove is a lecturer in Tax and Accountancy in the Department of Accountancy & Finance at NUI Galway. On 23 September 2016 she attended a meeting of the United Nation's Expert Group on Illicit Financial Flows at the invitation of the United Nations Financing for Development Office, in conjunction with the Macroeconomic Policy Division of the United Nations  Economic Commission for Africa. In addition, she presented a paper on Tax Spillover Analysis at a conference on Human Rights and Tax - organised by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice which is based in New York University (NYU).

Rendering subjectivity informative – field study evidence of subjectivity in performance measurement and reward systems 30 September 2016 @ 9:30 am - 11:00 am Location: CA113, Cairnes Building (Ground floor), NUI Galway, United States Speaker(s): Professor Anne Lillis Affiliation: University of Melbourne Organised by: Performance Management research cluster Professor Anne Lillis is Fitzgerald Chair of Accounting at the University of Melbourne, Australia and is a member of the editorial boards of eight top tier international accounting journals. Her research interests focus on field studies of the design and behavioural influence of performance management and control systems.

Begoña Navallas : Visiting Researcher Begoña Navallas, is a Spanish teacher and researcher from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), and a registered chartered accountant with long experience in auditing services. She holds a Business and Administration degree from UAM and a  Master in Auditing by Universidad de Alcalá de Henares (UAH). She completed her PhD at in the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, where she is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Accounting. Begoña's research interests include corporate governance, disclosure decisions and audit regulation. Her current research focuses on segment disclosure and stereotypes on the auditing profession. Begoña is a Chartered Accountant, registered on the Instituto de Censores Jurados de Cuentas de España (ICJCE) and has long professional experience in auditing and accounting services. She is an active member of the ICJCE, and member of AECA, Spanish association of Accounting and Management .

Revisioning the "Fiscal EU": Fair, Sustainable, and Coordinated Tax and Social Policies NUI Galway is one of eleven universities across six EU (Sweden, Denmark, UK, Ireland, Austria, Czech Republic) and three non-EU countries (Brazil, Canada, and Norway) forming this international, cross-disciplinary research consortium which will make recommendations on how fair and sustainable taxation and social policy reforms can increase the economic stability of EU member states.  The project aims to produce recommendations on how fair and sustainable taxation and social policy reforms can increase the economic stability of EU member states, promoting economic equality and security, enhancing coordination and harmonization of tax, social inclusion, environmental, legitimacy, and compliance measures, support deepening of the European Monetary Union, and expanding the EU’s own resource revenue bases. Dr. Emer Mulligan, through the Irish Centre for Social Gerentology within NUI Galway leads Work package 4 (WP4) of project FairTax, which is entitled ‘European Pension Policies and Intergenerational Fiscal Sustainability, Fairness, and Consolidation’.  WP4 will critically evaluate the implications of demographic ageing across the EU and in selected OECD countries, and the employment, social security, tax, and pensions policies introduced to address this phenomenon. A particular focus is on fiscal sustainability, equality, and consolidation across the EU. WP4 will address questions pertaining to intergenerational conflict, extended working life policies, the ‘social contract’, and cross-national consolidation of policy approaches to pension provision and extended working life in rapidly changing conditions. The project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme 2014­2018, grant agreement No FairTax 649439. 

 ‌The topic of sustainable growth and competitiveness brought together practitioners and academics from 24 countries at the recent European Network for Research in Organisational and Accounting Change (ENROAC) conference hosted at NUI Galway. Guest speakers including Ray Cantwell, Senior Finance Director of Global Operations, Medtronic; Massimo Romano, Head of Group Integrated Reporting and CFO Hub, Generali S.p.a; and Nick Topazio, Head of Reporting Policy at the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), discussed the need to highlight the creation of sustainable value for stakeholders within annual reports by focusing on forward looking information for companies, as opposed to simply reporting historical content.   Back row, l-r: Laurence May, KPMG; Professor Bob Scapens, Manchester Business School; Ray Cantwell, Medtronic; Massimo Romano, Generali S.p.a; Nick Topazio, CIMA; and Professor Cristiano Busco, Roehampton University. Middle row (l-r): Professor Paolo Quattrone, University of Edinburgh; and Dr Jim Browne, President, NUI Galway. Front row (l-r): Professor Breda Sweeney, NUI Galway; Patricia Martyn, NUI Galway; Dr Elena Giovannoni, University of London; Mary Barrett, NUI Galway; Dr Emer Curtis, NUI Galway; and Dr Geraldine Robbins, NUI Galway.

On Tuesday, 3rd February 2015, Ms. Riona Lyons, lecturer in Accountancy & Finance met with final year students at Summerhill College, Sligo to speak about studying accounting at NUI Galway and potential career opportunities in accounting. 

Dr. Hilary Qualter was conferred with a PhD in Taxation.  Her research was supervised by Professor Emer Mulligan and co-supervised by Dr. Rachel Hilliard from the Discipline of Management. Hilary’s research examined tax policy participation in practice with a focus on Irish corporation tax policy.

Dr Emer Mulligan, J.E.Cairnes School of Business and Economics, speaking at the 2013 joint Irish Tax Institute/Harvard Kennedy School conference: Shaping Tax Policy – The Global Landscape in Dublin Castle