Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O’Reilly for raising this issue.

Increased female participation in our workforce is vital for our economy and, in the interests of our society, we need to ensure women can realise their full entrepreneurial potential.

This is an issue on which the Government is focused. In fact, the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, as late as last week, met an organisation called TechFoundHer. I have also met a number of organisations on this issue to discuss how to address some of the barriers that women technology - tech - founders face. These include under-representation, access to existing networks, access to capital, and mentorship and role models.

While these are not issues unique to Ireland, my Department, through Enterprise Ireland, has been working to promote greater gender diversity in the technology sector and improve access to supports for women founders. Over the past decade, Enterprise Ireland has focused on increasing the number of women founding high potential start-ups and much progress has been made on this. In 2011, for example, only 7% of Enterprise Ireland-backed high potential start-ups at first seed stage included women founders. By putting a spotlight on this untapped potential and providing capability and funding supports specifically targeting women founders, by 2022 the share of Enterprise Ireland high potential start-ups with women founders has more than trebled to 37%.

Gender is built into the reporting requirements for all seed and venture capital funds that are supported by Enterprise Ireland now. I am pleased to report that 70% of the seed and venture capital funds that Enterprise Ireland supported have women at partner-investment manager level, which is a huge change from where we were ten years ago. Enterprise Ireland partners with the Irish Venture Capital Association for an annual series of events to bring female founders together on the topic of raising capital and linking to venture capital funders through workshops and networking events. Furthermore, programmes such as Going for Growth, New Frontiers and Leadership 4 Growth are available to women across Ireland and have significant results in women starting and scaling businesses across all sectors.

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