Ms Jeanne McDonagh:

Yes, we had two rounds of that programme over two years. We started it the year before last with TU Dublin. We got funding to run an entrepreneurship programme specifically aimed at people with disabilities. In the first round, 20 people took part in a very intensive 12-week programme which took an idea they had and worked towards building a business plan. From those 20 people, six developed a very viable business plan. It is up to the same standards we would apply to any entrepreneurial business plan. Will it succeed? Does it have possibilities? One person got seed funding during the course, so successful was her idea. This led us to gaining funding from AIB to fund three more years of this course. The second course ran in September, and the course runs every September. The level of interest and of skills involved and the amount of development people achieve from taking part in the course, which is the only one of its type in the country, is just phenomenal. It is something we very much want to see grown and developed because it allows people to work on their own basis and with their own skills, vision and idea, and, it is hoped, retain other people with disabilities to work in the companies that come from these programmes.