Entrepreneurship Forum will harness the expertise of business leaders – Collins

Fine Gael Cork North West Deputy, Áine Collins, has welcomed the establishment of the Entrepreneurship Forum by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD. Deputy Collins said the fact that the Forum will include leading business experts, including Dragon’s Den and Avego MD, Sean O’Sullivan, who will act as the Forum’s Chair, means that it will harness the expertise of those who have already succeeded in business.

“This week the Entrepreneurship Forum held its first meeting, to announce its membership. It will be headed up by well-known Dragon, Sean O’Sullivan, whose business Avego is based in Cork and who earlier this year addressed the Charleville Chamber of Commerce business conference.

“The other members include people such as Joe Cunningham, serial telecoms/software entrepreneur and inventor of the SMS message, and Tom Keogh, entrepreneur behind Keogh’s Crisps. The aim of the Forum is to provide recommendations to Minister Bruton on how to stimulate greater levels of start-up business in Ireland and the fact that it will be staffed by leaders in the business world means that we can get the best advice from those who not only can, but those who already have.

“It is estimated that 67% of all new job creation comes from start-ups in the first five years of their existence. This underlines the importance of supporting new businesses and putting a range of measures in place, as the Government has been doing through the Action plan for Jobs, to ensure their success.

“The Forum is expected to prepare a policy statement for Minister Bruton which will feed into the Action Plan for 2014 and will invite leading experts in various fields to contribute to the process. This will ensure that the voices of those who know, first-hand, how to best create the environment in which businesses can flourish and jobs can be created.

“A National Entrepreneurship Policy is set to be developed to help those with great ideas to turn them into business opportunities. To this end, the Minister has been receiving submissions from all sectors, academics and business people on charting the best way forward.

“I commend the Minister for his work in this area and to the approach he has taken in bringing people with valuable business experience on board in a bid to putting the most effective structures in place to grow jobs and get our people back to work.”
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