Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman, and apologies for my late arrival. I missed the opening remarks but I have read the documents provided.

Deputy Peadar Tóibín touched on international comparisons. The representatives said they get the best advice from wherever they can get it. Have they looked internationally in terms of our major competitors and what they do to encourage entrepreneurship? My apologies if this has been touched on in some of the earlier questions that I might have missed.

The representatives talk about the tailored supports aimed at increasing the level of female entrepreneurship, including strong role models. Where do they see those fitting in? Is it in schools or universities? They also mentioned the boards. Notwithstanding anything that happened in the past couple of weeks in relation to boards and encouraging female representation, how do the representatives see the new system applying to publicjobs.ie? How does one encourage women to apply because often women or men may not think they are suited to a board? If there are greater levels of female participation on boards, that in itself will encourage better ideas to promote entrepreneurship.

The representatives mentioned the appropriate response that will work to fill any gaps in terms of working with universities and other Departments and agencies. We have the Springboard and ICT conversion areas. Are those the areas they are talking about? Are they talking about short courses rather than specially designed degree courses? The representatives stated that they have had very positive feedback from clients on JobBridge, Momentum and so on. Is there a correlation between attending these and setting up the businesses that have been successful?