Ireland's Love Affair With Entrepreneurship

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Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan T.D. launched the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Report for Ireland for 2007. The report found that 8.2% of the adult population living in Ireland is engaged in entrepreneurial activity, an increase on the 2006 level of 7.4%. So don't let the peaceful photo above fool you. Ideas are flourishing here and the Irish (my people) are making it happen.

Directed by Babson College, GEM reviews entrepreneurial activity and perceptions of 42 countries and is the world’s largest research project focusing on entrepreneurs and how they affect national economic growth.

The report findings include:

The number of entrepreneurs in Ireland increased in 2007. In 2007, 1 in 12 of the adult population in Ireland (aged 18-64) was involved in actively planning or had recently started a new business. This rate of 8.2% is an increase on the 2006 level of 7.4%.

The 2007 report shows a significant increase in the number of women entrepreneurs. Over 1,000 women in Ireland are starting new businesses each month. The number of women setting up new businesses or actively planning to do so increased to 5.9% (of all women aged 18-64) in 2007, up from 4.2% in 2006.

The level of informal investment (investing in someone else’s start-up business) was 3.3%. This is the highest rate reported by GEM in the last five years and brings Ireland into the top 10 of 20 selected OECD countries.

The 2007 GEM Report is available on www.enterprise-ireland.com and www.forfas.ie as well as on www.gemconsortium.org.