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

I welcome the delegates. This is a very interesting discussion. Coincidentally, I have just returned from Tel Aviv. I was there with a European mission for growth. As I had wanted to visit Tel Aviv for some time, when the opportunity was presented to the committee, I had my hand up first. The delegates are very familiar with the work we are doing in Cork with the Cork Foundation and in trying to obtain funding and so forth. There is some interesting information on Tel Aviv. The average age is 29 years and all males spend three years in the army, while the females spend two years in it. They then spend half a year travelling and one year working before they start college. There is, therefore, a very positive attitude towards taking a chance. There are also incubation centres, some of them in the basements of libraries. They are not high end, simply places where people are collaborating together. From what I saw, they are all ages, not just young people. There were people there in their fifties and sixties. It was not the image we had of young college students.

I met many interesting people, but one guy had an elevator programme which I thought was good. I understand Telefonica has something similar here, whereby it has a five month intensive incubation programme. The guy told me that the hardest thing was to obtain accreditation and seek distribution for young start-ups to get to the next stage. He is obviously a mediator between the source of venture capital and the start-up. He more or less incubates them and everybody receives a share; therefore, everybody wins and it is very clean.

The other area includes the universities. As every university has a company, if one wishes to have research conducted, the university takes a share, but it is very clean and up-front. The figure might be 2% or 5% and if the research or product turns into a Google, everybody benefits. In Ireland, on the other hand, different universities have different policies and it seems to take forever to move forward. It can take 18 months to almost three years to get a product through the system. We must definitely change this.

I do not know if the delegates have encountered Mr. Andrew Lynch. He is working in a type of incubation centre that is working with multinationals and small companies in which they conduct research together. Another blockage is funding. Ireland is the only country in the OECD in which one cannot draw down European funding unless one is part of an education system. One must go through a university to have money drawn down. I understand we are changing this, but it is taking a long time. It is a big issue for us, given that one of our great strengths is the multinational environment and small business. All of the multinationals are outsourcing their research because it is far more effective than conducting it internally. I do not know if the delegates have been to the Digital Hub in St. James's, but there are approximately 800 people working there in different companies. We need more such places. There have to be basements and libraries available-----