Mr. Kevin Sherry:

As I mentioned earlier on high-potential start-ups, a lot of work has gone into us trying to drive up the level of new starts being established by female founders. We have gone from a position ten years ago where the percentage of high-potential start-ups we supported was approximately 7%. Last year it was 36% in total. That has involved a series of activities focusing on encouraging female entrepreneurship. We have done dedicated, competitive start-fund calls in which we specifically focused on females to encourage them to start their own businesses. We have also focused on ensuring mentor availability, that is, that similar female founders are available to provide support. Our attitude is that as you cannot be it if you cannot see it, we try to profile successful founders and to build networks. Increasing and encouraging the participation of diversity in the various leadership programmes Enterprise Ireland runs is also key. It is key to build up cohorts and networks. It has been successful over time. The other aspect that is important is encouraging diversity in the management teams and boards of established businesses.