Mr. Eoin Costello:

It is like sport and the major improvements due to the rugby academies and the GAA taking it up to amateur professionalism. The improvement is massive in terms of our rugby teams competing with the best and our GAA teams producing amazing levels of professionalism and expertise. In terms of Cillian, I was in the same class as Gillian, who talked about the socialisation into the business ethos represented by the family of Senator Quinn, who has just joined us. It was a similar case with me, where my parents were perennial triers, always trying some new business. One of the less successful businesses was cleaning chimneys, which my dad used to doing his spare time. Fitting door holes went equally badly. One day, I took an afternoon off school to help him fixed door holes and, unfortunately, my form master took the same afternoon off and the first door we knocked on was his. That was the end of my involvement in that business. They also set up hand knitting businesses and I absorbed that ethos through socialisation. We will not become a global tech hub for any of the ecosystems we want to tackle, such as food, biopharma and technology, if we continue to rely on a few great role models. We are gradually and glacially moving to a situation where the local enterprise officers have a national competition, with prize fund of €2 million, for student entrepreneurs. A number of student bodies in various universities and institutes of technology are looking at running internal incubation programmes and there are a number of acceleration programmes. One example is LaunchPad in Trinity College Dublin. It is a long-term game.

Deputy Dara Calleary talked about how we could change the culture. It is by having role models, people having positive experiences and not being concerned about the downsides and that they will lose a benefit. I remortgaged my house to make the payroll half way through the growth of the business and existed very successfully. The people who are up for taking these risks have to be encouraged. We have in the country people who are innovative and creative, but we have a culture which does not reward them. However, it can be changed.