Mr. Tom Hayes:

Just to add to what Ms Sinnamon said, the Deputy asked about our operations with Northern Ireland. Alongside those, there are a number of other programmes, so I suggest that we send the Deputy a brief note. For instance, we cover the Acumen programme which is an all-island business development programme. We also run Fusion which is the technology transfer programme, as well as the Halo Business Angels network which is to help early stage investment in companies. We work with them on the student enterprise awards, which is an all-island third level undertaking. In fact, last year's winner came from Northern Ireland and this year's awards ceremony will be in Belfast. There are a number of others also, including Horizon 2020. I suggest, therefore, that we should send the Deputy a briefing covering the areas in which we work closely with our colleagues in Northern Ireland.

The Deputy also mentioned the pull factor, which is an interesting point. Rather than waiting for people to knock on the door, quite a number of our programmes - some of which have already been referred to - aim to attract, encourage, inspire and pull people in. They include the competitive feasibility funds, which are mainly run on a regional basis. We have just closed one in the south east which attracted 47 applications. By putting a spotlight on the region, it helped to attract, inspire and encourage these people to come in the door. They may not otherwise have done so without that particular programme's promotion.

There are two successful schools programmes, one of which is run by the LEOs. It has been running for some time and has been recognised in Europe. About 370 secondary schools in Ireland have participated in that programme, which involved 17,000 students in 2014. The LEOs have been running that programme successfully for a number of years.

We also run the third level student enterprise awards which have grown in significance, quality and numbers in recent years. Last year, there were close to 500 participants, while this year we expect to improve upon that significantly.

This is individuals or teams within all of the colleges working together on their project and bringing it forward, and it will be narrowed down to ten. Last year, between ourselves and the LEOs, we invested in all ten projects, such was the quality of the projects that came forward from the education system.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur, IBYE, competition, which was also to inspire and encourage the youth. It brought in over 1,000 applications from right across the country. It was encouraging and inspiring, pulling in entrepreneurs. That provides a huge pipeline of early-stage start-up entrepreneurs in companies right across the country. It culminated in an event in Dublin just before Christmas involving 24 finalists. The quality of those projects was inspiring. A number of them will have received private investment, and investment from ourselves and the LEOs also. It was a good question. Pulling those in must be a key part; we cannot merely wait for entrepreneurs to walk in the door to us.