Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report For Ireland Launches

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton T.D. has launched the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Report for Ireland for 2011. The report shows that there has been an increase in early stage entrepreneurial activity in 2011. As a result more people started new businesses in 2011 than in the previous year. The GEM report estimates that approximately 2,200 enterprising individuals were setting up a new business each month during 2011.

The GEM report is supported by Enterprise Ireland, Forfás, the European Social Fund and the Department of Justice and Equality, under the Equality for Women Measure 2007-2013, and also by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. The authors of the report are Paula Fitzsimons of Fitzsimons Consulting, who is the National GEM Co-ordinator, and Dr Colm O’Gorman, Professor of Entrepreneurship, DCU Business School.

Findings of the 2011 GEM report indicate that almost three quarters of these entrepreneurs expect to become employers. While the majority of the businesses will remain small, the employment impact of these new enterprises is significant when taken together. The GEM report also highlights the relative ambitious growth aspirations of a significant minority of these entrepreneurs in Ireland compared to other countries across the EU and OECD.

Welcoming the report, Minister Bruton said: "It is successful businesses, not Government, that create jobs. That is why the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs includes a series of new measures to support entrepreneurs and new start-ups, and to drive continued growth in this critical sector of the economy. In this regard I am pleased to note the results of the GEM research, which indicate that more people were starting new businesses in 2011 than were a year earlier. It is good to see increased numbers of enterprising individuals determined to turn difficult circumstances into an opportunity for personal and commercial success.

"The GEM report sets out clearly the many positives around entrepreneurship in Ireland 2011. It is also very clear that there are areas where challenges remain. My determination is through the Action Plan for Jobs to provide further support for the Irish entrepreneurial community to generate even greater numbers of innovative entrepreneurs to create strong, export led businesses in the coming year."

The 2011 Report also examines the gender aspect of entrepreneurial activity in Ireland and indicates that there are two and a half times as many men as women who are entrepreneurs.

(CD)