Dr. Olive McCarthy:

We are also seeing many social enterprises emerging now. We have a specific policy around social enterprise in Ireland. Many of them establish as co-operatives but they may start very small. We believe it might help more social enterprises to find the legal structure early on that might suit the way in which they wish to operate. We understand the legislation enables people to decide on their rules. It could be seven, if they feel seven is a more appropriate number. A bigger number again might be appropriate for particular different types of co-operatives. There should be flexibility in the legislation to allow particular types of co-operatives to decide that a larger number is more appropriate for that particular type of co-operative while leaving flexibility there for other groups that might find a smaller number to be appropriate.