Ms Denise Sidhu:

Deputy Tóibín asked about the take up of VC as a form of funding and the levels of growth over the last number of years. Ireland has a very strong VC presence, with active fund managers. Bank of Ireland, which is a cornerstone investor of Kernel Capital, has invested more in Irish VC since 2000 than any other Irish bank. As part of the recapitalisation programme for the banks, a number of seed and early stage funds were set up to stimulate entrepreneurship in Ireland. These have been very successful funds. They have been almost fully utilised. Many of the portfolio companies over those funds are now ready to scale and grow and receive growth funding in their series A funds. We believe it to be a very active, vibrant market.