IRISH chartered accountants do not find it attractive to set up their own businesses, the newly elected chairman of the Leinster Society of Chartered Accountants, Ms Penelope Kenny, said during her inaugural address at the society's annual general meeting in Dublin yesterday.

She said a recent LSCA survey had shown that 87 per cent of accountants believed themselves capable of setting up their own businesses, but were discouraged from doing so because of the twin burdens of high taxes and administration.

She added that the risk reward ratio" for entrepreneurs was therefore not favourable, and as a result the economy was losing out.

The theme she has adopted for the coming year, she said, was cooperation with other sectors of the business community. The perception of chartered accountants in the market place also needed to be clarified, and this would be achieved by a customer survey, she said.

Ms Kenny spoke of her ambition to see an improvement in pay for women in the industry. "Our recent salary survey showed that women accountants are paid less for doing the same jobs as men. For example, women who qualified between 1985 and 1989 are paid 28 per cent less than their male counterparts," she said.

Succeeding Mr Cyril Maybury as chairman, Ms Kenny, of Bank of Ireland's international banking division, said his would he "a class act to follow". The new vice chairman is Mr Paul O'Connor, who works for Craig Gardner.