Today saw the launch of the Government’s National Policy Statement on Entrepreneurship in Ireland, which aims to create an additional 93,000 jobs in start-up companies over the next five years. This document marks the first time Government has published a comprehensive national plan for entrepreneurship.
Key measures outlined
Minister Richard Bruton and Minister Gerald Nash launch Government’s National Policy Statement on Entrepreneurship in Ireland
Launched by Minister Bruton, Minister Nash and Minister English today in Liffey Trust, a vibrant community-based enterprise centre in Dublin's inner city, key measures in the plan include:
- Doubling the volume of funding to start-ups in Ireland from business angel investment. Angel investors are successful entrepreneurs or executives who invest private funds in start-up businesses. Analyses of successful start-up environments around the world, in areas including Israel and Silicon Valley, repeatedly point to the existence of business angel networks as a key element. A total of approximately €70million is currently invested per annum by business angel investors in Ireland
- Co-working and accelerator spaces available for start-up businesses right across the country. The Local Enterprise Offices and the Community Enterprise Centres will form a key part of this, and this will be part of a new system of supports for start-ups locally. Included in this will be new competitive calls for funding, following on from the model pioneered successfully in the Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur competition, which attracted over 1000 applicants from around the country
- New mentoring services for start-ups, including a national database of mentors
- Entrepreneurship programmes in schools, third and fourth level education, and in new apprenticeship systems
- New targets for government agencies, including a 12% increase in start-ups supported by Enterprise Ireland by 2015
- New marketing plan to promote Ireland abroad as a location for international start-ups
- Measures to promote entrepreneurship among under-represented groups – including women, young people, migrants and older people
- Specific reductions in the administrative burdens facing start-ups, including the length of time it takes to register a new business and the burden of applying for licences
- New supports for innovation by start-ups, and ambitious targets for EI and SFI to increase innovation activity by start-ups
- New measures to support start-ups to sell abroad, including opportunities in supply chain of IDA companies
- An annual report to the Minister for Jobs, analysing Ireland’s performance in entrepreneurship against domestic and international benchmarks
The plan also sets out a range of issues in the taxation system which, if addressed, could provide a major boost for the prospects of start-ups in Ireland. However, consideration of these matters will ultimately be a matter for the Minister for Finance and cabinet in the context of Budget 2015 and future Budgets, including share-based remuneration in private companies, Seed Capital Scheme and Employment and Investment Incentive, capital gains tax and income tax.
The key target contained in the plan is to double the jobs impact of start-ups in Ireland over the next five years, from its current figure of 93,000. In order to deliver on this the Government aims to:
- Increase the number of start-ups by 25% which represents 3,000 more start-ups per annum
- Increase the survival rate in the first five years by 25% which will mean 1,800 more survivors per annum
- Improve the capacity of start-ups to grow to scale by 25%
Development & measurement of the Statement
It is the Government’s plan to deliver an ambitious but realistic increase in the numbers of start-ups in Ireland over the next five years.As mentioned above, one of the aims of this new statement is to create an extra 93,000 jobs in the Irish start-up business community over the next five years. It is also hoped that there will be a 25% increase in start-ups, representing 3,000 more start-ups per annum.
Central Bank research shows that start-up companies in the first five years of existence account for two thirds of all new jobs created in Ireland; as part of the Action Plan for Jobs, this Government has committed to develop and implement a plan to increase the number of entrepreneurs in Ireland and thereby support thousands of extra jobs.
The plan follows on from, and draws on, the report of the expert Forum on Entrepreneurship, chaired by Sean O’Sullivan, and published earlier this year. The Minister and his Department also consulted with academics and entrepreneurs, other Government Departments and Agencies as well as the national business community through the Action Plan for Jobs forums in drawing together the plan.
The measures in the plan will be implemented through the Action Plan for Jobs process in 2015 and future years. It is anticipated that entrepreneurship will be included as a Disruptive Reform in the 2015 plan.
Read the Government’s new entrepreneurship plan here.
Read the Report on the Expert Forum on Entrepreneurship here.
Read about Action Plan for Jobs and the current disruptive reforms here.