Mr. Karl Aherne:

Let me talk about hotdesking. Wayra is the Telefonica accelerator and we opened two years ago. By the end of the summer, we will have invested in and accelerated 31 start-ups in Ireland and a mix from a range of countries. Obviously, the majority are Irish founders, but we have founders from Romania, New Zealand, the United States, Italy, Canada and Mexico. There are a range of founders coming into Ireland. They see the opportunities in being here.

Enterprise Ireland is helping. It has a number of funding solutions for start-ups, from the competitive feasibility fund for female founders to the competitive start-up fund for early seed start-ups. It has the follow-on high potential start-up fund which provides match funding of up to €250,000. It is certainly playing a role also.

On hotdesking, last year in Wayra we created a new area where we could house 20 to 25 new individuals who were creating businesses. We do not charge for this. We meet them and see if we are interested in their businesses. They come and work for free; we do not charge them one penny. Literally, within one month of opening, we were full. The capacity was taken almost instantly. The demand for hotdesking and access to a community and a network is crucial.

In Spain Telefonica has created a new business, Open Future. It is working with regional councils, the equivalent of county councils here, and identifying office space available. It works with the county council to turn it into an office environment at a cost to the council, but it will then work with it to provide mentoring services, facilities and access to markets.

That model could work here, if not with Telefonica, then with some of the other corporations coming in from the United States and Irish corporations. There are definitely options in terms of fulfilling that need for space and community, which is the critical element.