Reflections from the Chair of Public Affairs Ireland’s Corporate Governance Conference 2022

“It was a great honour to have chaired Public Affairs Ireland’s Corporate Governance Conference 2022 on 20 October.

The opening address, given on video by EU Commissioner Mairead McGuiness, observed that – “… sustainability has moved from the margins right to the heart of our thinking.” Our subsequent speakers copper-fastened this observation. They advised that sustainability and climate change are matters that must be taken seriously by all organisations; illustrated here with some quotations:

· Niall Fitzgerald of Chartered Accountants Ireland devoted a whole section of his presentation to sustainability standards and what organisations need to do to be sustainable.

· Ciaran O’Carroll of’ ‘Change by Degrees’ laid emphasis on training to manage climate risk at the company level. Specifically, he recommended having in-depth training so that companies can calculate the financial impacts that climate change will have on assets and liabilities.

· Dearca Dennis of EY argued that the significance of sustainability is increasing. I quote Dearca – “People don’t want to be associated with something that isn’t sustainable.”

· Maureen O’Donnell of ‘Business in the Community Ireland’ emphasised the importance of acting on climate action; emphasising how it impacts on so many other dimensions of business,

and

· Deirdre Ahern, Professor of Law at Trinity College Dublin, pointed out that increasingly sustainability is something that affects so many areas.

During the Q&A Session questions were also raised about sustainability and climate change. It is not that these two issues dominated the proceeding; areas such as ESG and reporting standards were also addressed. But sustainability and climate change certainly held centre stage. For that reason, I focused on them for these reflections.

In conclusion, I would like to acknowledge the trojan work our experts put into their presentations. I learned a lot from both the presentations and the questions asked and the answers given during the proceedings. I want to record my thanks to all those who participated.

I look forward to future collaboration with Public Affairs Ireland around Corporate Governance in a world where unfortunately it is no longer business as usual”.

– Tom Ferris

Conference Chair and Economic Consultant