Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the first Action Plan for Jobs in 2012, special actions were initiated to support an increase in female entrepreneurs. This included Enterprise Ireland’s first dedicated Competitive Start Call for female entrepreneurs. That call was massively oversubscribed and was immediately extended. That was the first step taken.

An increase of female entrepreneurship has been a consistent policy objective. Since then it has been reflected in the subsequent National Policy Statement on Entrepreneurship which was launched last year. This is the first time a Government has published a comprehensive national plan for entrepreneurship in Ireland. The policy initiatives to promote greater involvement by women include start up training programmes, mentoring and networking dedicated start-up training programmes, mentoring and networking dedicated start-up calls targeted at women, and public promotion of role models of successful women entrepreneurs. The policy is yielding significant results.

Enterprise Ireland had its best result ever for female led start-ups in 2014. Of the 183 technology start-ups that received equity investment, 43 were led by female entrepreneurs. Enterprise Ireland also supported 94 female led businesses through female specific development programmes co-funded by Enterprise Ireland, and it is on track to increase the numbers this year. Enterprise Ireland also has an online networking platform for female entrepreneurs and has supported several awards, conferences and initiatives to create platforms for female entrepreneur role models. I have not seen Senator Mary White's report yet, and I know the Deputy is launching a report today also. If we get a chance we can attend that to examine it but as is the case with all the reports that come through the committee, if there are proposals from which we can benefit we try to implement them if we can. We will have a look at that.

Last year, and this is a good statistic, the local enterprise offices, LEOs, delivered training to almost 14,000 women, compared to 11,000 males. That is a major increase. On the mentoring, approximately 2,921 women took up mentoring compared to 3,969 men, but the gap is closing, which is an improvement.

The LEOs organise the National Women’s Enterprise Day and the Women in Business Initiative, which bring together women who are successfully running their own business and who aspire to success. Of the more than 1,000 participants in the LEO-run Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur competition, there were 487 female participants. Some of the initiatives are having an impact but the onus is on all of us to keep promoting them.

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