Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the raison d'être of the forum, which has the usual Andrex puppy feel of all of the Department's statements at the moment. The Minister described the seven people as "a core group of active and dynamic business people", yet he could only find one woman to fit that profile - there is only one woman out of seven people on the core group that will devise and drive entrepreneurship policy. The Minister is kidding me if he thinks there is only one woman who fits the profile of an active and dynamic business person. I suggest he looks around this Chamber or the other Chamber, where he could no doubt find seven such women.

We need to encourage entrepreneurship. In terms of the Minister's mission to recast the economy, as a nation we need to change completely our attitude to entrepreneurship and encourage and support it. We need to encourage women who are entrepreneurial by nature to get into the entrepreneurial space yet the Minister is telling me that among active and dynamic business people, he can only find one woman.

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