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Bruton visits high growth Irish social networking start-up SkillPages

Company previously backed by Government achieves 1,000,000 customers after

150 days

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton today (Monday),

officially opened the new expanded offices of SkillPages, a high-growth

Irish social networking company which has achieved a million members after

150 days, to meet its founders and discuss the environment for tech

start-ups in Ireland.

The company, founded in 2010, has offices in Dublin and Silicon Valley. It

is a professional social network which attempts to bring together people

looking for skills with people who have those skills. It has received

support from Enterprise Ireland and some of its innovative ideas have

derived from academic research in CLARITY, a research centre in UCD funded

by Science Foundation Ireland.

The Minister commented:

“I am determined that, in order to get jobs and the economy growing again,

we must dramatically change the type of economy we have in Ireland. Where

once we depended on speculation, we must now rely on innovation as the

basis of future growth.

“This weekend I returned from a week-long trade mission to Silicon Valley,

where I saw first hand the highly innovative companies which are driving

spectacular growth in the global technology boom. We in Ireland must not

only build on our traditional strengths to attract more of these companies

here, but also learn from the highly innovative companies we already have

here to drive a generation of Irish start-ups.

“Today I am delighted to see in SkillPages the great success that can come

from a combination of government support, partnership with universities,

and innovative people.

“I will be listening closely to hear what more government can do to support

start-up companies like this to ensure that home-grown innovation can drive

a generation of start-up companies and get jobs and the economy growing

again”.