Ireland has a shortage of qualified company secretaries who can parse tougher EU corporate governance regulations, the new president of the Institute of Company Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) has claimed.

Ruairí Cosgrove, who is also the PwC director for entity, governance and compliance practice, said over-regulation has now been identified as one of the key threats to growth.

"For example, we have the new Companies Act, now in force for over a year, and other new EU regulations, resulting in more stringent compliance and corporate governance requirements," Mr Cosgrove said.

"Chartered company secretaries have the appropriate skills to ensure business is not held back by this regulatory burden and are ideally positioned to ensure their organisation is not exposed to undue risks," he said.

Increase

As president of the ICSA, he said his goal would to significantly increase the number of ICSA-qualified company secretaries.

"To achieve this we need a co-ordinated effort to ensure the relevant education and training are in place and we are already collaborating with professional bodies such as the Law Society and the Institute of Bankers."

Mr Cosgrove was appointed last week as ICSA president for a two-year term.