Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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4. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the remit of the recently established Entrepreneurship Forum; the reason he has not sought a better gender balance on the forum; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33644/13]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The remit of the Entrepreneurship Forum, under the chairmanship of Mr. Seán O'Sullivan, is to provide advice on matters of policy in the area of entrepreneurship and to draft appropriate policy conclusions and recommendations which will support business start-ups, sustainable growth and long-term job creation. The forum will generate actions for the 2014 Action Plan for Jobs.

The membership of the forum is focused on a core group of active and dynamic business people who run highly successful businesses and have direct experience of the challenges facing entrepreneurs and can provide a relevant insight into the responses needed in the current economic environment. The forum also has the capacity to call in various stakeholders for specific thematic discussions where required. As stated in the press release announcing the membership on 27 June, “the initial membership will be supplemented at different meetings with representatives and experts from different areas of the economy that can help the work of the forum”. In this regard, at its first meeting Ms Paula Fitzsimons from GEM presented research on entrepreneurship and pointed to areas of potential and models of best practice.

I am keen to take advice and recommendations from people across the country who have actually taken the entrepreneurial route, as well as from experts in the area. That is why I held a public consultation inviting submissions from interested parties to support our work. More than 70 submissions were received from entrepreneurs, business organisations, members of the public and academics. These submissions will provide a starting point for the forum’s work.

The forum and my officials are committed to engaging actively with various representatives around the country in the coming months to obtain a variety of views and to discuss the key issues affecting entrepreneurship activity. I am confident that this process will ensure that the entrepreneurship policy statement which is being developed will contain recommendations which reflect the fullest spectrum of business interests in Ireland.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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It is our intention to engage with thousands of women in this process. I could hardly be accused of discriminating against women in business because, for the first time, under my guidance we established a competitive start fund dedicated specifically to women entrepreneurs. I put €750,000 into that last year and it was massively oversubscribed. There are encouraging signs that women entrepreneurs, who were very much a minority, are becoming much more actively engaged.

What we sought to do was to move across a number of areas, such as retail, food and the entrepreneurial hub. We are going to develop each of those sections and there will be a particular dedication to looking at how we promote more women and young people in entrepreneurship, and how we spin more entrepreneurship out of our R&D investment. We are going to have a very thorough assessment of this area. I assure the Deputy we will have a very wide engagement through this process.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I have previously welcomed the fund. However, it was one of the lowest of the funds made available in Enterprise Ireland's suite last year. I want to see whether that fund will be launched again this year and, given the oversubscription to the fund, I want to know whether there will be a bigger budget.

Second, the fact that the fund was oversubscribed must give the Minister an indication - it certainly must give Enterprise Ireland an indication - of the strength of female entrepreneurship throughout the country. Surely the Minister, in assembling what he has described as a core group of active and dynamic business people, could have found three or four women, out of the total of seven, to drive this initiative. He has given no proper explanation for his failure to do so. It sends a very poor message in encouraging female entrepreneurship.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy seems to have misunderstood what I said. The purpose of this group is to set the ball rolling. We will be engaging with thousands of women involved in business.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister described it as the core group.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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It is not a board with any continuing role, rather it is a group tasked with starting the consultative process over a three month period. We will attempt in that very short timeframe to meet as many relevant persons as we can.

I will be providing additional money this year for women in entrepreneurship by way of a competitive start fund confined to women. This is an area in which we are confident of achieving success. I intend to develop the programme already in place, but I am also looking to new areas where we might perhaps learn from best practice in other countries. This will include examining what has been done in mentoring, for example, and the elements that have contributed to success elsewhere. We will also examine areas such as manufacturing where we are weak in entrepreneurship start-ups. We are looking at a wide range of areas of opportunity and I would welcome any submission from Deputies and others in this regard.