Former ICAI head Frank Barrett dies

The former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and founder and former partner of Arthur Andersen Co’s Irish practice, Frank Barrett, has died.

Mr Barrett retired from accountancy in the mid-1980s, after which he acted as an non-executive director.

Managing partner of Andersen’s Dublin office from its foundation in 1979 to 1973, Mr Barrett was appointed as director of special services – Europe by the international partnership of Arthur Andersen Co in 1984.

In that post he had responsibility for developing new services to clients from the firm’s 43 offices in Europe and South Africa.

Mr Barrett was president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland from 1982 to 1983.

At the institute’s annual dinner in November 1982, Mr Barrett gave a ringing endorsement to the first report of the Commission on Taxation, saying the then narrowing tax base was having a deleterious impact on the economy and on tax collection. He criticised the inadequate approach of successive governments to the issue of taxation.