Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 25 October 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Engagement with Chairperson of Enterprise Ireland

Photo of Louise O'ReillyLouise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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I join the Chairperson in wishing Mr. Carey well in his new role. We look forward to hearing from him and working with him. As the first of his priorities, he said that Enterprise Ireland would ensure that the client is placed at the core of everything. That is incredibly important and I was glad to see it.

Female founders in tech and founders of disruptive and novel technologies are saying they find it hard to access supports or in some instances get what they would say is a fair hearing from Enterprise Ireland because of what they are telling us is an alleged lack of diversity at senior decision-making levels and a lack of understanding of novel technologies, such as property tech and home market tech. These are new and emerging areas. I ask Mr. Carey to elaborate on how he will improve on that. Responses to parliamentary questions have shown that the figures for female founded companies are behind at 27% with the balance obviously going to the other gender. How does Mr. Carey plan to improve on this?