Today, IAASA has published its 2025 quality assurance review reports in respect of seven firms that perform statutory audits of public-interest entities (PIEs) in Ireland. The reports summarise IAASA’s inspection of each firm’s internal system of quality management. The reports include any findings and recommendations made by IAASA to the firms regarding these systems.
The reports also summarise the results arising from IAASA’s inspection of a sample of audits of public-interest entities performed by each firm, including the grades assigned to the audits inspected and any key recommendations made to the firm.
In 2025 88% of files inspected were found to be of a good standard, with only minor improvements needed if any, an improvement from 81% in 2024. The number of key recommendations from inspections also reduced significantly, from 39 in 2024 to 17 in 2025. The most common areas for improvement were in respect of engagement quality reviews, the audit of financial statement disclosures and Key Audit Matter (KAM) procedures.
There were six firmwide findings relating to systems of quality management, of which one was graded as amber. Again this represents an improvement on 2024, when there were 15 firmwide findings, of which 4 were graded amber. The 2025 findings were across a range of areas relating to firmwide quality systems.
Commenting on these results, Chief Executive Kevin Prendergast said
“Last year I expressed disappointment with the results of IAASA’s inspections and urged the firms to address the issues underlying this. This year’s improvement both in firmwide systems of quality and individual audit inspection results is therefore welcome. Again, Ireland is ahead of many of its international counterparts in audit quality levels based on our regulatory inspection process. The audit environment remains challenging however, in particular the complex geopolitical and economic environment in which many public interest entities operate. New technology also brings both challenges and opportunities for audit. Accordingly, audit firms must continually strive for improvement in bringing the critical element of trust to corporate reporting.”
IAASA undertook 24 (2024: 31) inspections of individual audit files in these firms in 2025. Of these, 21 (2024: 25) were graded as good audits, three (2024: five) required improvement, and none (2024: one) required significant improvement. On firmwide systems of audit quality, IAASA raised six firmwide findings in 2025, with findings raised in five firms inspected (2024: 15 firmwide findings raised in all seven firms).
IAASA also commenced its review of sustainability assurance reporting in 2025. The results of this work were not published by firm but a summary of the observations was published in December 2025.