Feargal O'Rourke re-elected to lead PwC Ireland

PwC has re-elected Irish accountant Feargal O’Rourke as the head of its Irish wing for a second four-year term. O’Rourke is widely regarded as the architect of the infamous Double Irish tax scheme, and was voted into the top job late in 2014 by PwC’s Partners in the Republic.

PwC is the largest professional services firm in Ireland, and offers a broad range of services across audit, tax and advisory. The Irish arm of PwC has been seeing sustained growth more generally, thanks to uncertainty faced by clients resulting from Brexit and a changing data and tax regulation landscape.

Amid this buoyant atmosphere, the Irish wing of the Big Four firm has confirmed the unanimous re-election of its Managing Partner, Feargal O’Rourke, for a second term of four years. A PwC stalwart of 32 years, O’Rourke joined the firm in 1986, before becoming a Tax Partner with PwC Ireland some 10 years later. He was elected as the firm’s Managing Partner by a poll of PwC’s Irish Partners in 2014, and in the four years since, the firm has enjoyed growth driven by increasing economic optimism in Ireland regarding the nation’s post-crisis recovery.

Commenting via his Twitter account, O’Rourke said of his re-election, “Four years ago this week I was elected Managing Partner of PwC Ireland. It has been a privilege and a career pinnacle to have, in my view, the best job in Ireland. Proud beyond words to be unanimously re-elected by our partners until 30/6/2023. Thanks to our People who make PwC Ireland great!”

The son of former Irish Minister Mary O'Rourke, Feargal O’Rourke is a leader in the development of corporate tax planning tools and tax legislation for US multinationals in Ireland. He is best known as the "great architect" of the Double Irish tax scheme, used by US firms such as Apple, Google and Facebook to shift their profits to lower tax jurisdictions.

It is the largest such scheme in history, having made Ireland the conduit by which US multinationals built untaxed offshore reserves of over $1 trillion. The scheme divides opinion, with proponents claiming it has attracted much needed funds to Ireland, and detractors arguing it perpetuates a race to the bottom in which the world’s largest corporations are ultimately subsidised by tax payers for the public resources and facilities they use.