Ms Julie Sinnamon:

Deputy Lawlor asked, if the Minister was asked the question, what more we can do to get more women into business. That is the question the Minister asked a couple of years ago, when we were at 7%, as to what can be done. That is when we started looking at what were the issues that were stopping women going into business and that needed to be addressed.

When Ms O'Sullivan was talking, particularly about the high-potential start-up side which is the larger projects, 66% of those being supported in that regard are middle and senior managers in existing companies. In the pool that one is drawing from, given that there is a very small number of women in those positions relative to men, there is a likelihood for there to be a bias towards male applicants. Going back to the issues one is trying to address, they include access to finance, more role models, the confidence issues and technical skills. This led us to run competitive funds to build confidence, to get the role models and to continue the sponsorship.

Funding is still an issue.

That is a matter about which there is probably a need to do something. I would like to see more focus on angel funding or other sources of funding. Even with bank funding and angel funding, I still believe it is more difficult for women to gain access to funding than men.