Politicians Urge €25m For Female Entrepreneurs

/ 30th July 2015 /

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation has recommended positive discrimination measure for woen entrepreneurs in the form of a €25m Female Seed and Early-Stage Seed Capital Fund distributed by Enterprise Ireland.

The committee says the management of the Fund should be predominantly by women and that the funds should invest between €100,000 and €600,000 in emerging companies so that a total fund of €25m could support about 50 new female-led companies over a five year period.

The committee’s report, Key Issues for female entrepreneurs in Ireland and their participation in the tech sector, also calls for extension of the qualifying terms for maternity benefit to female entrepreneurs as currently exist for female employees, namely 39 weeks of PRSI contributions and not 52 weeks; and 6 weeks notice rather than 12 weeks.

The committee also recommends that a more powerful, sustained and clear campaign to inform parents, teachers and girls of the intrinsic value and career benefits of studying science, technology, engineering and maths subjects.

Committee Chair, Marcella Corcoran-Kennedy said: “We firmly believe that the contribution made by women entrepreneurs needs to be recognised and further supported in order to grow even more. Today’s report makes 12 recommendations as to how we can continue to encourage women to step into the entrepreneurial space, and in particular, the science and tech industries.”

“We have identified access to finance and maternity leave conditions, as well as limited access to networking opportunities for women as just two of the issues facing female entrepreneurs.

Report Rapporteur, Senator Mary White, said: ““Despite the fact that increasing numbers of women are entering the fields of medicine and law, there remains a significant gender imbalance in the business and STEM industries.

“An unconscious bias still prevails which designates business and STEM as being typically ‘male’ fields. Our report challenges that mind-set, as it acknowledges the work being done by many women in these fields.”

Kevin McLoughlin of accountancy firm EY commented: “Removing blockers for self-employed individuals, such as the PAYE tax credit and lack of social welfare rights, would be a progressive step for early stage entrepreneurs in particular. The suggestion of an ‘entrepreneur’s capital tax’ set at a lower rate than the current capital gains tax of 33% is certainly worth exploring ahead of the upcoming Budget.

“Through our EY Entrepreneur Of The Year programme, EY has seen first-hand just how significantly outnumbered female entrepreneurs are by their male counterparts when it comes to building companies of scale."