Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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262. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide a breakdown of the funding provided to the Startup Ireland Initiative as set out under the Action Plan for Jobs; the return on investment in terms of job creation; the anticipated start-date for such prior to the Startup Gathering 2015 scheduled for October 2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5957/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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‘The Startup Gathering’ is a new initiative which will be led by the not-for-profit organisation Startup Ireland as a key building block towards making Ireland a global startup hub by 2020.It builds on the success of initiatives such as ‘The Gathering’ and ‘The Wild Atlantic Way’ in a sustainable, regionally balanced way. To help make Ireland the best place in the world to establish/locate a high impact startup, five days of events will take place annually in the second week of October (from October 5th to 10th in 2015) in each of Ireland’s cities (Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford) with a focus on the industry strengths present in each city.

Using the successful model of ‘The Gathering’ the week will leverage and augment many existing events and projects that are themed around entrepreneurship, startups and existing industry clusters present in each city. The five industries will be those ‘strength in depth’ sectors currently located in Ireland namely ICT, Medical Devices, BioPharma, Agri/Food and Business Services.

The goal for the Startup Gathering 2015 is to facilitate in excess of 50 events and networking opportunities nationally during the week for at least 15,000 members of the Irish public and international visitors.

My officials are currently in discussions with Startup Ireland regarding possible sponsorship of the Startup Gathering initiative. Any decisions regarding funding will be made with a view to maximising the return for the State. No funding has been provided to date.