Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim mo chomhghairdeas leis na finnéithe maidir leis na figúirí a bhain siad amach an bhliain seo caite. D'éirigh thar barr leo. I have a couple of questions. There is a feeling of push-pull in enterprise, especially in Enterprise Ireland. It responds to the demand in society, to a certain extent, and obviously it has a role in generating demand as well. I suppose some counties still do not feel the economic increase being experienced. What can be done for those particular counties? Is Enterprise Ireland working on the national spatial strategy? Is it feeding into the development of that?

I read recently that Denmark has ten times the number of export companies that Ireland has even though it is a similar sized economy. What can be done to achieve those kinds of figures? Are there enough connections between foreign direct investment and indigenous business? How could that be improved? Are there any comparators for Enterprise Ireland internationally? Enterprise Ireland is doing very good work but could the committee be furnished with results of comparisons with other organisations, such as Scottish Enterprise or International Enterprise Singapore, which is further afield? What work is Enterprise Ireland doing with enterprise agencies in the North of Ireland?

Ms Nicola Byrne appeared before the committee last week and gave a really powerful presentation on the experience she has had in regard to female enterprise and she focused very much on the issue of supports for women. I know that could be straying into the policy domain and maybe that is not what Ms Sinnamon wants to do, but what is her experience of that in regard to child care, etc? Ms Byrne also spoke very much on issues of taxation. Again, that could be considered policy area but what are Ms Sinnamon's views on that? Ms Byrne really hammered home her view that we are focusing too much on trying to shove women into a tech box and she felt women's skills, as she put it, were not necessarily exactly the same. Rather than fit women into that existing box, she asked if there was a need to create a space that harnessed the skills she felt women had better and that maybe that would be more successful. Schools are a key area and that is where it needs to start.

I refer to the networking programmes in which Enterprise Ireland is involved. I was involved in the county enterprise board and developed a number of women's networking meetings. Are there any key performance indicators in regard to how successful they are? I know they are very well attended, etc., but are there any hard figures on new start-ups, exports, etc. that are generated from those types of investments?

What sectors have the highest incidence of female entrepreneurs? Are there any other socio-economic statistics in regard to the background of entrepreneurs because Ms Sinnamon mentioned that many of the spin-outs are occurring from middle management and management within business and corporations. I imagine many of those would not come from lower socio-economic backgrounds, etc., especially Enterprise Ireland-type businesses, although maybe more so with the county enterprise or LEO-type businesses. Are there statistics on that?