Failings in corporate governance risk damaging Ireland’s reputation as a centre of entrepreneurial drive and innovation, according to Paul Farrell, CEO of Hibernia College.

The damage caused by failings in the important area of corporate governance is putting Ireland’s reputation as a centre of entrepreneurial drive and innovation at risk. This has been highlighted by a leading figure in the field of third-level education in Ireland – Paul Farrell, CEO of Hibernia College.

“Too often one has seen businesses – founded on the back of an excellent invention, a soundly-based scientific or technological study, or brought to life as a response to some consumer demand or market need – hit the buffers, not because of any intrinsic weakness in the product or the service proposition on which it was founded, but through failure on the corporate governance front,”
Mr Farrell said.

A more focused approach to Corporate Governance education and training

Speaking at the announcement of a new Master of Science in Corporate Governance programme being offered by Hibernia College, in collaboration with its sister Accountancy School organisation, Mr Farrell said:
“The increasing volume of business failures – marked by the number of companies facing insolvency, and those forced to enter liquidation, examinership, or administration – has served to underline the urgent need for a more focused approach to Corporate Governance education and training across all fronts”.

Whilst noting that Ireland has always been a ‘powerhouse’ for new ideas – fuelled by the creativity and imagination inbuilt within the nature and character of the Irish people, and reflected in the international standing of some, such as CRH and others – Mr Farrell stressed “how important it is that Ireland would educate a new breed of business leaders versed in the skills required to ensure that good businesses would stay alive and prosper, not just domestically but on the international stage”.

“Adding to this urgency,” Mr Farrell continued, ” are the ever-tightening standards, rules, and regulations being imposed by the European Union, by national governments, and other trans-national groupings and administrative unions under whose strictures an international trading nation must operate”.

Programme at Hibernia College

The programme being offered by Hibernia College is a two-year, part-time, blended learning study that will culminate in an MSc in Corporate Governance professionally approved in Ireland by the Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland (CGIUKI). The programme is currently pending QQI validation, with an anticipated start date of October 2024.