Mr. Eoin Costello:

I had an MBA group over from Colorado, the home of Brad Feld's start-up communities, and they were looking at some of the elements of this. There is a competition run internationally - let us call it a start-up gathering - and it does not have to be that expensive.

We figured out that the Boston Maths Challenge, which brings 800 start-ups to Boston, probably costs about $1.5 million per annum to run. With regard to incubation facilities, the model internationally in many locations is that they are privately funded, or if we really want to kick-start that space, we could look at it as a public-private funded vehicle. It could be very much cost-neutral to the Exchequer. In terms of incentivising accelerators, as Mr. Aherne identified, there are ideas such as attaching tax credits to work that a company does on a vertical accelerator, or having start-ups in the same building as the parent company so that there are casual conversations and chats, which gets over all the gatekeepers which typically stop a company from getting that corporate sale. Dublin City Council could make the space rate-free for a number of years for the accelerator. On the cost side, there would be the cost of the incentives; however, the benefits would include jobs, PAYE and other taxes. Just look at the scale of what the IFSC has achieved. Much of what we are talking about would be neutral at worst, but at best, we would see that it would have a substantial benefit to the Exchequer over time. Let me give the simple example of Mark Little selling Storyful. He has made it quite public that of the €20-million-plus consideration, €6 million went to the Irish Exchequer because the start-up company was located here.

Imagine if there were 100 such exits. Israel raises approximately €3 billion in VC per annum. Imagine the impact of the exits, or the successful sales, on the Exchequer here.