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

Regarding the statistics, the Deputy quoted the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM. To be clear, the 2013 report showed that Irish men were 1.9 times more likely than Irish women to start their own business or become an early stage entrepreneur, and the EU average is 1.9:1. That is not good enough but we are competing in that regard. We are slightly above the OECD average, which is 1.7:1, but the Deputy will agree there is untapped potential when it comes to female entrepreneurship, and we are trying to push that forward.

The regional plans have a range of actions, two of which have been launched, with more to follow. Many of those actions are to be agreed and implemented at a local level. Some of them are specifically aligned to female entrepreneurship but they are more general in nature. Through the LEOs and Enterprise Ireland there are a range of initiatives specifically to target female entrepreneurship. To name a few, from an Enterprise Ireland perspective there is Going for Growth, which is a development programme specifically targeted at female entrepreneurship; the Dublin City University Royal Academy Female Propeller for High Fliers programme, the NDRC Female Founders programme; and the Cork Institute of Technology female Exxcel programme. There are an additional 32 women in the New Frontiers entrepreneur development programme as well. We have the funds available in terms of the target initiatives but it is a question of promoting the applications process.

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