Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

As the Minister of State is well aware, a number of other people and I have put forward what we envisage as a proposed entrepreneurship education strategy for Ireland. Those people include business people, entrepreneurs and educators such as DIT entrepreneurship lecturer, Dr. Thomas Cooney. A 12-point plan was included in this strategy. I know the Minister is familiar with that and I want to take this opportunity to put some of the propositions on the record of the House. I hope the Minister of State will continue as he has begun in trying to implement the strategy.

The group proposed the introduction of field research projects as an element of business studies subjects and an entrepreneurship module in all aspects of third level education. Multiple intelligence and emotional intelligence theories should be introduced to social, personal and health education and a young entrepreneur of the year competition should be launched. I know good progress has already been made on establishing a schools awards programme and there should also be development of an entrepreneurship education on-line resource for teachers. Above all there should be an appointment of a champion, both internally to the Department and externally - somebody with the respect of business - to promote the implementation of the entrepreneurship education strategy.

Since we began we have been joined by business people and educators from the different levels of the education system to develop collectively a set of proposals which can be introduced by the Department of Education and Science. A total of 12 proposals have been developed, of which only one requires additional funding to existing resources. In these challenging economic times, there is little financial reason we cannot do this.

The need to develop a coherent entrepreneurship education strategy is not new to Ireland. As far back as 2002 the Goodbody report stated that the school system does not support the idea of working for oneself and the Irish education system was seen by entrepreneurs as having played a very limited role in supporting entrepreneurship to date. Since then there have been a number of successive reports, such as those by the Enterprise Strategy Group and Small Business Forum, which have successfully argued that the development of entrepreneurship education across all levels of the Irish education system could be a sustainable source of locally grown entrepreneurs.

Ireland does not, as it stands, have an entrepreneurship education policy despite the many calls in evidence-based reports published by the European Commission highlighting the substantial benefit to the nation's economy and its young people. The Commission has published a series of thoughtful reports and recommendations that it encourages member states to act upon and most of which the Irish Government has yet to introduce.

One of the members of the European Commission entrepreneurship education expert group was leading Irish academic and co-author of our own recommendations and strategy, Dr. Thomas Cooney. According to Dr. Cooney, a number of countries similar in size and peripheral geographical location, such as Scotland, Norway and Finland, have already recognised the benefits of an entrepreneurship education strategy and implemented policies to ensure all students receive some form of entrepreneurship education during their formal schooling years. There is a growing body of international evidence which demonstrates that students who receive entrepreneurship education as part of their schooling show improved academic performance, school attendance, educational attainment and have increased problem-solving and decision-making abilities, interpersonal relationships, teamwork abilities, money management and public speaking skills. They were much more likely to find employment and have enhanced social and psychological development, self-esteem, ego development and self-efficacy.

The reason students achieve these benefits is because the primary goal of entrepreneurship education is not to get everybody to start their own business but to encourage young people to think positively and look for opportunities to make things happen, to have the self-confidence to achieve their goals and use their talents to build a better society, economically and socially. It also recognises that students of all academic abilities can be part of this process and that success is not dependent on the number of points one gets in the leaving certificate but on how one lives life.

We could benefit greatly if we did that for the future. Putting the appropriate template in place now would lay groundwork similar to that laid by the Minister of State's father, Charles Haughey, and Donogh O'Malley in providing free secondary education in the 1960s. That led to the economic success we achieved in the 1990s. Similarly, doing this now and having appropriate entrepreneurship education strategy introduced throughout the education system would ensure our sustainable success for the future. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Haughey, will continue to take that forward.