Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

One of the things that has frustrated me is that 97% of people take a refusals lying down and go away with their tails between their legs. Only 3% of people challenge and generally they have a good outcome. I hope that by pre-ticking the consent box we will at least have sight of information on the issue. There is no guarantee, however, that all of the loan applications will succeed. There is no guarantee that all of the geese are swans, so to speak.

I agree with the Deputy's suggestion. We will contact local enterprise offices to ask them to contact the banks to see if they can attend such events when they take place. I know that many entrepreneurs attend a type of bootcamp and are exposed. I am sure the banks are involved in some of this scrutiny of entrepreneurs. The figures are very encouraging, as 1,100 young entrepreneurs applied, which shows that there is an appetite. The special competitive start for women initiative was massively over-subscribed. We need to look at subsets or groups that are under-represented among entrepreneurs and try to set something up for them. Young people and women in particular have been and continue to be under-represented. We will look afresh at the issue.

I know that Julie Sinnamon is very keen that we strengthen the offer to women entrepreneurs, because they are significantly under-represented. In the past year, we have been drafting a policy on entrepreneurship. There are some fantastic role models out there that we need to develop.