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Employers can offer many different share schemes to their employees or directors, often as a way of rewarding employees and encouraging loyalty and participation in a tax efficient manner.

2024 marks the 20th year of Grant Thornton’s work to monitor and measure the proportion of women occupying senior management roles in mid-market companies around the world.

The gender pay gap is the difference in the average hourly wage of men and women across a workforce. It does not indicate discrimination or unequal pay; rather, it is an assessment of gender representation gap within an organisation.

During 2022, the Revenue Commissioners launched a share-based remuneration project. Revenue analysed employer annual share reporting forms (e.g. Form RSS1) against available data such as personal tax returns. They identified discrepancies such as employees under-declaring share option tax and underpaying Capital Gains Tax (CGT).

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (“EFRAG”) submitted to the European Commission its technical advice on the first set (“set 1”) of draft European Sustainability Reporting Standards (“ESRSs”) on the 22 November 2022. This included 2 “cross cutting” ESRSs (General Requirements and General Disclosures) and 10 “topical” standards across Environmental, Social and Governance topics.

In August 2022, the Irish Government approved the Climate Action Framework (“the Framework”) for the commercial semi-State sector. Developed by the New Economy and Recovery Authority (NewERA) in collaboration with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, the Framework applies to all commercial semi-State (CSS) companies.