Mr. Michael Carey:

I thank the members for the opportunity to attend, introduce myself and share my initial priorities as the incoming chairman of Enterprise Ireland.

Enterprise Ireland helps Irish manufacturing and internationally traded services companies to start, scale and grow their businesses. We work across all regions and sectors of the economy with export-focused companies, predominantly with SMEs, supporting them to improve their competitiveness and productivity and to increase innovation, helping them to develop to achieve their full growth potential.

Enterprise Ireland's statement of strategy is entitled Leading in a Changing World. Our mission, as set out at the start of 2022, the beginning of the strategy period, is to accelerate the development of world-class Irish companies to achieve leading positions in global markets. We work with the network of 31 local enterprise offices, LEOs, through our centre of excellence, working closely with the local authorities to support the growth of local enterprises across the country.

My background and experience over the past 40 years entail a combination of leadership positions in the private sector, primarily in the food industry, and the public sector, as chairman of several State boards. In the private sector, I have held several senior management positions in Irish and multinational food manufacturing businesses, working here in Ireland and in the UK. I have held the positions of managing director at Evian Volvic UK, managing director at Fox's Biscuits and managing director at Kellogg's for the UK and Ireland. In the past 20 years, I have set up, invested in and managed several start-up food businesses, including Jacob Fruitfield Food Group. Currently, I manage a specialist food sector investment firm with equity interest in several businesses, including through the establishment in 2016 of East Coast Bakehouse, Ireland's only commercial-scale biscuit manufacturer. The latter is based in Drogheda and currently employs 130 people. In 2019, East Coast Bakehouse won the overall Irish Exporter of the Year award. It is one of Europe's fastest-growing food businesses.

My experience as a director on State boards involves two terms as chairman of An Bord Bia. I currently hold the position of chairman of the board of the Housing Agency, and I am in my second five-year term. I have chaired the board of the Grow Dublin Tourism Alliance, which is part of Fáilte Ireland.

I have experience of Ireland's entrepreneurial ecosystem as a judge of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards for the past ten years, giving me exposure to a wide range of entrepreneurial activity in all business sectors. I have been involved in the past in job creation and livelihood development as a cofounder and board chairman of several business-led not-for-profit organisations operating in Uganda and Haiti.

I hope my experience in both the private and public sectors will allow me to carry out this role as chairman of Enterprise Ireland successfully, and I am happy to commit whatever time is required to ensure I can have a meaningful impact on the success of the organisation.

Coming into this role, my intention is to spend some considerable time listening - listening to all the stakeholders, including the leadership team and board; most crucially, the clients; the Department and Members of the Oireachtas; and the sister agencies involved in enterprise development.

The role of Enterprise Ireland is a broad and complex one, with a substantial budget and significant important responsibilities. I will invest considerable time ensuring that I fully understand how Enterprise Ireland has been successful and how it has allocated its resources.

Having said that, I come into this role with a number of personal priorities, which will continue to evolve and change as I get closer to the organisation. Those initial priorities include the following. We need to ensure the client is placed at the core of everything ensuring that we have a clear and deep understanding of and insight into the needs of the client companies and entrepreneurs as we respond to those needs in a way that makes a real and meaningful impact.

We need to ensure that we support, in an optimum manner, the full range of Irish businesses, in every stage of the entrepreneurial journey, from micro startups through high-growth Irish firms and Irish global leaders. The needs of companies at those various stages change and evolve and Enterprise Ireland's response needs to be appropriate.

We need to ensure that the indigenous business sector in Ireland is making as great a contribution as possible to our economy and society, counterbalancing the great success of foreign direct investment. Many Irish-owned and controlled businesses have the potential and ambition to become global leaders, and I believe Enterprise Ireland can play a role in supporting such ambition to establish Irish businesses of real scale.

We need to ensure that Enterprise Ireland’s strategic ambitions are in line with the priorities of the White Paper on enterprise especially as regards decarbonisation, digitalisation, innovation and employment.

We need to ensure that we help build a supply of future leaders, who can work in State organisations such as Enterprise Ireland and can be future business leaders and entrepreneurs. Investing in developing current and future leaders will have an enduring impact.

Enterprise Ireland’s current strategic plan runs from 2022 to 2024. We will commence a process in the coming months to develop the next strategic plan, taking into account the ever-changing business environment, current challenges and opportunities facing our clients. I will personally chair the strategy sub-committee of the board and will work closely with the members of the board and the leadership team to ensure key cross-sectoral issues such as sustainability, digitalisation, diversity, leadership and innovation are integrated into the new strategy.

Successful businesses, managed well, can make a significant positive improvement to Ireland’s society, contributing a substantial proportion of corporation and employment taxes, and generating wealth and high-quality employment opportunities. The State, through the efforts of Enterprise Ireland and others, has a key role to play in facilitating such success by encouraging entrepreneurship, supporting companies' ambitions to grow and expand, to improve competitiveness and to innovate. I look forward to contributing to that effort as chairman of the board of Enterprise Ireland.

I take this opportunity to thank my predecessor, Terence O’Rourke, who held the role of chairman of Enterprise Ireland for the past ten years. He has played a full role in ensuring Enterprise Ireland has made a successful impact on the Irish indigenous business sector, going through such major crises as Brexit and Covid-19, while ensuring robust and professional adherence to corporate governance at Enterprise Ireland. I hope to continue to maintain those high standards.

I also thank our chief executive, Leo Clancy, and his leadership team, as well as the members of the board of Enterprise Ireland, for their support and assistance over the past few weeks. I look forward to working closely with them in the coming years, to optimise the impact that a State agency such as Enterprise Ireland can make on our economy and society.