60–
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Delegates in attendance
38–
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Public sector organisations in attendance
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
Of attendees rated our speakers as ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’.
Attendees rated this conference an average of 4.2 stars.
9 out of 10 delegates will take an action soon based on the information shared by this expert speaker.
