Feargal Quinn (Independent)
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I have found this session very interesting. Mr. Mark Fielding spoke about schools, including primary schools. I have spoken in the last few weeks to a number of different primary schools on entrepreneurship and it is a joy to hear the enthusiasm of these youngsters. I spoke to pupils in the fifth class and sixth class age groups.

They are just so enthusiastic. What impressed me was that I did not get any sense of a fear of failure. Those entrepreneurs, even at that young age, did not seem to be frightened of failing. I would think that is probably one of the more important areas to focus on.

I have a daughter living in France. She is in business there and is actively involved with different groups and it seems to me that there are quite a number of Irish people who have succeeded in France. Yet many Irish companies, if they are seeking to expand or to export, tend to look to England or America because of the lack of foreign languages. Is there anything we can do with regard to languages, both European languages and the languages of emerging economies like China? I have a grand-daughter who lives in China and speaks Mandarin. It seems to me that we can encourage children in some age groups to look further afield than they are looking at the moment.

I met a group of fifth class students recently and the girls seemed to be taking over from the boys. They had come up with the concept of creating a cookery book and selling it and were calling to local restaurants to get recipes for the book. I was amazed at their enthusiasm at the age of 10 or so. We need to inspire people at that stage of their lives and should do so. Having listened to the witnesses today, it seems they are on that same road.