Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the three presenters, who have given me a little bit of hope again. I note Mr. O'Keeffe is keen to downplay his role in the EOY competition but every orchestra needs a conductor. It is a great programme but I never knew anything about the detail in regard to the alumni and the work they do until Mr. O'Keeffe explained it.

As Senator Quinn said, we do not have a culture of entrepreneurship.

We should encourage people to fail. If one fails, one should get up on the horse again. I am from Mayo, where we are used to failure. However, we will sort it this week and Donegal will be quiet next week. One gets up on the horse again. In terms of that culture, we must all do it. While reference was made to return on investment, and risk monitoring, there is nothing about entrepreneurship culture here. There is mention of standards, the eurozone crisis and so forth - stuff that people are fed up with. The witnesses, with the influence they have, should put the development of an entrepreneurship culture to the fore and challenge us and the education system generally. Out of a class of 30 11-year-olds, how many would answer "start my own business" when asked what they want to do when they grow up? Possibly none of them. What would the delegates say to them to make them understand, even at the age of 11, that they could run their own businesses when they are older?

Mr. Moan touched on a major issue when he said there was no co-ordination between the relevant agencies. We have county enterprise boards, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and many other bodies and partnerships but there is no co-ordination. Some bodies do great work while others do nothing but much of the effort is being lost. How many organisations has Mr. Moan had to speak to in order to roll this programme out on a national basis?