Mr. Gerry Moan:

Both the marketing and business aspect need to be led by entrepreneurs. There is an opportunity with the institutes of technology in particular, as they are on the ground with regard to much of the vocational aspect, to undertake some entrepreneur shadowing. It would be brilliant to tie EOY into this, whereby entrepreneurs with previous experience could be tied into those who are in the business streams in order to mentor them, guide them and to act as case studies because, again, the other case studies are 25 years old.

I see that Deputy Calleary agrees with me. The dilemma for the committee, with all due respect to its position, is that it is a question of the horse and the cart. We all seem to agree with what is needed on the ground. It is really about the energy, passion and conviction needed to get it off the ground. We cannot do that in the vacuum that currently exists or while we are waiting for county councils to decide whether they want to encourage enterprise or not. We cannot do it while we are waiting for county enterprise board officials to stop sitting on their hands and decide whether they are going to do this or not. Enterprise Ireland needs to take account of what is going on with the business angel community and of the recompense for entrepreneurs who go forward to the angel stage.

How it is that I can get tax relief on property and be allowed to invest the bulk of my pension in property, a market that we know has failed us, but I cannot invest the bulk of my pension in start-ups? It does not make sense and needs to be reappraised. I do not know if committee members see this on the ground but we do. I thank committee members for their time.