Mr. Frank O'Keeffe:

I thank the Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation for inviting us to talk about unemployment, job creation and, most importantly, what we in the Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year programme do to try to stimulate entrepreneurship. I am the partner in charge of our entrepreneur of the year programme. Effectively, I am the custodian of over 350 of Ireland's best entrepreneurs who have entered our programme in the past 15 years. I help to co-ordinate them and try to be the beacon of light and a voice for what the entrepreneurs on the island of Ireland are thinking and doing.

It is important to recognise that the Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year programme is an all-island programme, comprising entrepreneurs from different backgrounds and all sectors who have left academia at different stages of their lives but who have common traits around a vision, seeking an opportunity when others see adversity and having the belief to back themselves and encourage others to work with them but, most importantly, having the fearless factor to travel around the world and also nationally to try to win contracts, compete against much bigger companies and generate jobs on the island of Ireland.

That is really important to us.

Thousands of jobs have been generated in 2012 by our Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year community members. Only 24 entrepreneurs get into the entrepreneur of the year programme each year but as it is in its 15th year we have a group of alumni now that is very strong. Mr. Griffin will talk about that. The alumni are very active and they are giving back. Our entrepreneurs are focused on ensuring that they go back into society because they feel they are very lucky and fortunate to have been successful. In effect, they are going back into their communities and schools to try to help. Senator White talked about confidence. This is all about confidence. I will try to explain that in a bit more detail. Senator Clune talked about making things. What one sees with our entrepreneur of the year community is that we have a lot of manufacturers, not just service-oriented businesses, dotted throughout the island in different regions. I refer, for example this year, to Glenilen which is 300 miles from Dublin in County Cork but still has a fantastic business and an outlet to sell its products.

I would like to try to link what we have done not just on a national level but on a global one in terms of entrepreneurship. I have issued members with some documents on the G20 report. This is what we in Ernst & Young delivered to the G20 when talking about entrepreneurship as a barometer but also in terms of trying to help stimulate aspiring entrepreneurs on what infrastructure needs to be put in place. In Ernst & Young we think that there are five pillars. We in Ireland have fed very much into this piece. The five pillars are entrepreneurship culture, education and training, access to funding at the right levels at the right time, regulation and taxation and the impact government can have working with industry to ensure that the stimulus packages are there and taking a very much co-ordinated approach.

If the Chairman does not mind I will go through the five pillars and try to explain what we think is important. I have given the committee an executive summary of the report. I have the full manual with me and I am more than happy to share it with members at the appropriate time. This is not just our voice. This is what we are hearing from entrepreneurs from all around the world. This is our co-ordinated view from Ernst & Young around what our entrepreneurs throughout our entrepreneur programme in 50 countries are talking about. One thing that is also important is that we do not necessarily have to reinvent the wheel. We see an awful lot of really good things happening in countries such as Canada, the US and Brazil. They have some very good infrastructure to ensure the entrepreneurial spirit is there, not just to help the entrepreneurs of today but, most importantly, to help aspiring entrepreneurs of the future and what they can do to take on a business, be an entrepreneur and grow jobs in their country.

What is important in terms of our entrepreneurship culture is for the Government to consider how it can be put in place throughout society, not just in schools and third level education, so that people feel they have the ability on the island of Ireland to go out and do something different for themselves, which brings me back to what I said about confidence. They do not have to be a Frank O'Keeffe that goes into Ernst & Young but if they have a vision, an idea and a bit of innovation they can go out and do it for themselves. It is important that we foster such a culture on the island of Ireland. It has been done successfully in countries such as Canada where there is detailed infrastructure, and entrepreneurship is constantly promoted for everyone in society.

Entrepreneurship is not just for people with PhDs. It is for anyone with a vision. One of our previous winners left school when he was 14 and now has a successful global business. What we think is important is to use the infrastructure and to use successful entrepreneurs, business leaders, industry leaders and CEOs to get out and tell their story and talk about the successes we have on the island of Ireland. We do a number of things to try to stimulate that ourselves through the Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year programme. We run five TV programmes on RTE 1 at 8.30 p.m. on a Monday night in which we profile our 24 entrepreneurs from different backgrounds and sectors. We are doing that to try to show and prove to Ireland that it can be done and that everyone needs to have that ray of light.

We have also run an internship programme where we have asked our entrepreneurs to take on an intern, either someone who is a graduate from a university or someone who is unemployed and interested in their sector. We ran a competition where our entrepreneurs took on these interns at our request and now many of those people are successfully employed full time with our entrepreneurs. That is an example of our entrepreneurs giving back. We successfully launched an educational channel called EOY.tv. It contains all of our visuals and clips that we show in schools, businesses and universities around the story of entrepreneurship. I would encourage everyone, as I always do, to try to have a look at it.

In terms of recommendations for Government on the culture, we would like to see the Department of Education and Skills, for example, and Enterprise Ireland, but also industry collaborate on rolling out a national youth strategy on entrepreneurship. That is important. We will talk about a number of aspects of education. In the media one sees a great deal of commentary about foreign direct investment and job enhancement in foreign direct investment but on the island of Ireland we need to be stronger in promoting indigenous businesses and additional jobs. I am sure everyone is aware of the 25 jobs the Jelly Bean Factory has announced in Blanchardstown. Again, it is one of our entrepreneurs. That is really important and stimulates a lot for the community.

One of the areas on which we are very strong is education and training. What we believe in - we hear it from our entrepreneurs - is the importance of targeted entrepreneurship, education and training. Eighty percent of our entrepreneurs globally think that students need to follow specific training to become entrepreneurs. We have issued a lot of literature around whether entrepreneurs are born or made. It is a bit of everything. What is most important is for us to examine the curriculum and help students at different levels to think about entrepreneurship and doing things differently.

A young entrepreneur programme in Kerry is headed up by Jerry Kennelly, one of our judges on the entrepreneur of the year programme. Kerry is now one of the top three entrepreneurial regions in Europe. Jerry Kennelly, through his committee members, works tirelessly with second level students from the age of 11 upwards. They run a competition in Kerry and bring the finalists around the country to show how business activity works. These young people are generating businesses and jobs while they are still in school. It is giving them a different outlook in life, which is really important.

We also have just launched our Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year. It is a university series where we have agreed with all of the universities that we will ask our entrepreneurs to go into the universities with us to talk about their experiences - the ups and downs, the reality and the fulfilment of doing something different, working for oneself and fulfilling one's dream, which is key. Our alumni are very focused and are currently rolling out a programme. They do not have a lot of time but they are willing to give some back. With us, the likes of Mr. Griffin and other entrepreneurs throughout the island of Ireland are currently building a programme where entrepreneurs are going into secondary schools. They are also teaching them about entrepreneurship and talking to them about growing jobs in different industries and sectors, and there is positivity and an opportunity for Irish people to do it for themselves.

There are many other issues but our recommendations are around education. One of the fundamentals is catching people early. It is not just looking at unemployment today, it is looking at the heightened level of potential unemployment in years to come. One other document which I have issued, which I would like to share with the committee, is the Ernst & Young Economic Eyesummer forecast for 2012. It gives an all-island flavour. We are looking at Northern Ireland and the South of Ireland. One thing that concerns us most in the Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year community is the high level of unemployment for semi-skilled young males between the ages of 18 and 30. It is about trying to see how we can capture those issues early enough or give people the opportunity early enough to understand that there is a different opportunity for them, regardless of their academic ability based on their skill sets, and that it is a career option.

We are also seeking to get involved in working with the Department of Education and Skills in training the trainers. It is very difficult to get to every school and student but if we can get the entrepreneurs to talk to the educators and get them to show the educators the way they have been successful, then they can bring that into the curriculum and talk to the students about it. That is really important.

For us, the collaboration between educators and industry is key.

Another issue which might not be discussed enough in the media is technology. A significant number of IT jobs remain unfilled at present. We ran a technology seminar a few weeks ago at which one of our very high-profile IT entrepreneurs indicated that his biggest frustration is the fact he cannot find individuals of sufficient quality or experience on the island of Ireland to take up employment with his company. Those in the sector do not want the jobs to which I refer to go anywhere else. They are of the view that if they could work with the educators in respect of the curriculum in order to create focused opportunities for students, then these jobs could be filled. This is an important aspect.

Other initiatives we would suggest are in the area of mentoring. Within the Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year community, mentoring happens on a peer-to-peer basis all the time. However, we are of the view that there should be further mentoring initiatives for students and those seeking jobs. For example, a significant number of jobseekers might be considering particular industries and those in said industries and entrepreneurs could give something back - in community-based seminars in different parts of the regions - to these people in order to try to help them with their confidence and to assist them in understanding how they might obtain employment in their field of choice or expertise. This can be done in many different ways. We have a population of over 350 entrepreneurs in our community. These individuals are all willing to give back and they do so. It is important, however, to have in place co-ordinated supports and structures in this regard.

I am over-running on time at this stage so I will try to summarise the other points I wish to make. Access to funding is the third pillar. I am aware that this matter was discussed with the previous panel. There are many good initiatives being taken and many good things being done at present. I have listed a number of these in our submission. Potential and aspiring - not just existing - entrepreneurs need to have access to funding at many different levels. Sometimes businesses only need a small amount of confidence, equity or debt capital in order to move forward. We are of the view that there should be an overarching Government-led initiative which would focus on educating aspiring entrepreneurs and making them aware that while there are certain barriers to entry, these can - with the right level of support and guidance - be broken down. That is absolutely key. A large majority of our entrepreneurs interviewed globally - 80% - indicated their belief that governments have a really important role to play in creating the right environment for access to funding for young and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Our feedback to this committee revolves around trying to ensure that there will be some co-ordinated exploration of further credit guarantee systems and banking sector support, not just for SMEs but also in the context of advising and educating aspiring entrepreneurs. There is also a need to try to focus on and embrace business angel networks. In the context of sources of finance, such networks probably offer higher-risk funding and will invest smaller amounts for larger bets. I have just returned from a trip to Silicon Valley in the US for a retreat which was attended by 115 people who participated in our entrepreneur of the year programme. We learned a great deal from many of the top educators from Stanford University, University of California Berkeley and Singularity University, spent time with the global CIO of Apple and paid a visit to the headquarters of Facebook. That retreat is all about trying to help stimulate existing entrepreneurs into thinking differently and growing their businesses. In Silicon Valley, we learned much about access to venture capital and business angel networks. We also learned that it is sometimes okay to be unsuccessful or to start a business for the second or third time. The latter is where confidence comes into the equation. There is a view in Silicon Valley that it is something of a badge of honour to have started again or to try again. There is a particular confidence that exists in the ecosystem that is Silicon Valley and we must consider ways in which we might replicate this.

Our fourth pillar relates to regulation and tax. Globally, there is a recognition that having the correct regulation and tax system to really assist the development of an entrepreneurship culture and allow aspiring entrepreneurs to create jobs is extremely important. In that context, industry must be brought in at the right level. We must therefore use the best CEOs that are available on the island of Ireland in order to understand how we might achieve the right level of regulation and the correct balance of taxation to ensure industry assists the Government in rolling out a strategy and a plan. There are some good examples in this regard. Our corporate tax rate is extremely important. One of our entrepreneurs, Mr. Terry Clune, founder of ConnectIreland, is considering how we might use the diaspora to generate and increase the number of jobs on the island of Ireland. Our recommendations in this regard involve designing and building an effective, inclusive, stable, incentivised and targeted system and using entrepreneurs to become involved with and get behind that system.

The final pillar to which I wish to refer relates to co-ordinated support. There is a great deal of support available and many good things are being done in particular areas. However, there is a need to co-ordinate this support and adopt a one-stop-shop approach. The latter is very important for aspiring and smaller SME entrepreneurial businesses. Taking a one-stop-shop approach to simplifying company registration and taxation procedures and educating people on how to get their enterprises off the ground would be extremely useful and would have an impact. Many entrepreneurs do not establish businesses because they simply do not understand how they might do so. We are of the view that Enterprise Ireland, the Department of Finance, the Revenue Commissioners and the CRO could come together - by means of a simple, one-stop-shop approach - to explain how to get a business off the ground.

Those are the five pillars we wish to advocate. We think they are extremely relevant to this conversation and we hope members do too. There are some areas in which things are done fantastically well. We do a great deal of good stuff on the island of Ireland but there is also an element of best in class and, as a result, there is not necessarily a need to reinvent the wheel. Much of what we are advocating is contained in our "Entrepreneurs speak out" brochure, which has been circulated to members. I would be delighted to forward to them the full document. Our entrepreneurial community has a really strong voice and comprises some phenomenal people. I am not an entrepreneur; I am the partner in charge of the programme. However, Mr. Griffin is an entrepreneur. He and some of his fellow alumni possess some of the best business brains on the island of Ireland. We have a very co-ordinated body of alumni and these individuals are focused not just on growing their businesses and creating jobs but also on giving something back.

We would like to offer to return for an additional meeting with the committee - if it was of the view that this might prove beneficial - with members of our wider entrepreneurial community. I refer here to bringing before it people with different backgrounds from various sectors in order that they might discuss some of the individual initiatives they might advocate.