Ms Jean O'Sullivan:

It is called the Exxcel programme. This programme runs on Friday afternoons and Saturdays. We piloted it initially to see if we could encourage more women to consider entrepreneurial activities before taking the plunge and leaving their jobs. Our portfolio of clients are mainly male. From my own reflections on the work I have been doing over the years, our male clients typically come in pairs and spin out of a company with, perhaps, another colleague. Females typically come on their own and this is because they are risk averse. They do not like the idea of someone else leaving a business to go into business with them at the initial stage. They would rather have some traction before adding someone else to the business. There are different variables which we have to consider as we go along.

The programme has been running for about two years and, as Ms Sinnamon said, at that stage, 7% of our investments were in female-led businesses. Ms Sinnamon mentioned high-potential start-ups, HPSU, and the competitive start fund, CSF. When one takes our different equity investments, 23% of our investments in 2014 were in female-led businesses. On a regional basis, 50% of them are in Dublin and 50% of them are in the regions. Overall, 81% of them are in technology. In Dublin, 82% of the investments are in technology. The figure is higher again in the regions, with 84% of female-led businesses being invested in having a technology base.

We have moved along in terms of not only the type of businesses in which we are investing but also their scalability and how they can compete in international waters. One of the pipeline issues for us is that typically entrepreneurs spin out of middle management positions within corporations of all sorts or they come from family businesses. We are waiting on more females in middle management positions who are interested in spinning out to entrepreneurial life. This is one of the pipeline gaps for us. Now that 23% of our investments are female-led, we are brought to the top of the table in terms of international investments and technology-led businesses. Around the world, about 8% of investments go into female-led technology businesses. Best-in-class outside of Ireland would be New York-Silicon Valley which is around 15%. We are leading the way in terms of our investments. The numbers in which we invest are obviously smaller because of the scale of the country, but we have made great progress. Not only this, but we are bringing others with us on this particular journey and we are working hand-in-hand with all of the stakeholders within the eco-system who are supporting this agenda.