Áine Collins (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is interesting that crowd-financing, where small people invest small amounts of money, is taking off. That seems to have significant potential worldwide.

If I may, I will ask a question about credit. One of the initiatives on which we are working in Cork is looking at putting philanthropic donations into a fund to try to fill the gap where people can encounter difficulty in getting funding for entrepreneurship. Often, where they get a certain amount from the bank or a certain amount from Enterprise Ireland or whatever source from which they get a grant, there is a gap for which they need either bridging finance or matching funding of 50% or 25%. It is the first time this has been done in Ireland and we are trying to create a philanthropic fund, work on the diaspora, etc. This is huge in Israel. I wonder whether IBEC has any thoughts on that or any comments to make on it. Many have been saying we need far more different types of financing, as opposed to bank financing, for entrepreneurship.