Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 23 March 2023

Public Accounts Committee

2021 Financial Statements of Enterprise Ireland: Discussion

9:30 am

Mr. Leo Clancy:

I think it is due to the diversity of opinion when more women are included. A gender-balanced group is beneficial in any conversation. That is what we are seeing. We are seeing the statistics to support that. I will ask Mr. Sherry to talk about the success of female entrepreneurs in our high potential start-up programme. It has been increasing. We have also launched a project called the level project, which encourages companies to think more and to engage with the toolkit we custom designed with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment to work out how to increase diversity at all levels in their businesses. It is hard to go beyond the anecdotal. Some of the statistics are in our favour as regards global business but I do not have them to hand.