Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Ó Céidigh whose knowledge of and passion for small businesses has opened my eyes and ears. I come from a health background where it is more difficult to understand small businesses. With Senator Freeman, I worked in psychiatry for over 30 years. During the years of the downturn we gained a new diagnosis term - ecoside - suicide caused by the economic downturn - and it involved men. Looking at the list of delegates, of the 23 presenters, five are women. At the time we wondered why it involved men. Obviously, enterprises are male-run. The delegates are, however, very welcome and I also thank them for teaching me.

I will make a few observations, rather than asking questions. I say, "Well done," to Ms O'Toole and Mr. Walsh for helping to prevent the depopulation of rural Ireland. The projections show that by 2035, 70% of us are going to live in cities, which is going to cause its own major difficulties. I hope Ms O'Toole and Mr. Walsh will buck the trend with the quality of life and employment they offer and keep people in the country.

Going back to the issue of female representation, to a certain extent, we have done it in politics through the 40% quota. We have also done it in academia. How can we do it in apprenticeships, which are so important?

The delegates have told me eloquently about their own experiences. It seems that women lack the traits of finance and e-commerce which seem to be more male traits. Therefore, we may need to embed them even as early as primary school. They seem to be more male than female qualities. I am terrible at maths. The teaching of young girls and women in this area might be approached in a more gentle and enjoyable way in order that they might develop the capacity to carry these skills through and that they will not be scared off.

A point was made about apprenticeships. There is a push to encourage more females to take them up, but apprenticeships seem to be valued less than third level education courses. We appear to have become a society which sees third level education as a rite of passage, as an easier life for four years, rather than actually getting out and doing the hard graft in setting up one's own company. Apprenticeships needs to be supported and promoted because we do not all have the opportunity to meet the cost of third level education. We need to put apprenticeships on a par and stop devaluing them in the eyes of society in general.

Not much has been said about broadband. The fiasco that has happened and that is going to stall its provision has been touched on. As a Dub, I cannot get over how anything is done down the country. I have to wait until I get back to Dublin, the Pale, to do anything. It ties in with the point about e-commerce. How can we expect to have the capacity to teach e-commerce if we do not even have broadband?