Enterprise Ireland
Annual Report and Accounts 2006
Annual Report and Accounts 2006
Promoting entrepreneurship and facilitating the key infrastructural needs of regional Irish businesses is vital to ensuring a vigorous pipeline of new business leaders, new business ideas and entrepreneurial activity. Throughout the year Enterprise Ireland continued to be deeply involved in this work throughout the country.
Building the necessary environment and infrastructure to facilitate entrepreneurship in all regions of Ireland is a key part of the Enterprise Ireland strategy. Our work at a regional and local level in 2006 therefore focused on creating strong enterprise support networks and driving forward a shared vision for enterprise development.
In doing so we worked in partnership and cooperation with some 220 organisations throughout the country, including business innovation centres, county and city enterprise boards, regional assemblies, business incubation centres, regional and local authorities, third-level institutions, chambers of commerce and task forces. Working with these organisations helped us to ensure that the current and future entrepreneurial, environmental and infrastructural needs of key sectors were identified and supported.
This year we approved support of over €7 million under the Community Enterprise Scheme. The scheme provides infrastructural facilities in areas previously under-represented in start-up business activity. This is a community-led initiative between local communities and the State, with the objective of enhancing the development of an enterprise climate.
Technology incubators are essential complements to public investment in scientific research in Ireland. They provide vital transitional spaces between the research and business worlds and create environments where the commercial potential of third-level R&D can be maximised. The incubators in third-level institutions throughout Ireland generate seedbeds of innovative knowledge with the potential to create start-ups that can grow rapidly.
To date, Enterprise Ireland has invested over €46 million in business incubation activity. This covers 25 incubation centres, 16 of which are based in institutes of technology, three in universities and six bio-incubation facilities on university campuses.
Other examples of support for entrepreneurship in the regions in 2006 included a conference, organised in partnership with Dundalk Institute of Technology, providing a comprehensive overview of the best thinking and practice in promoting female entrepreneurship. The initiative brought together a panel of leading international experts, stimulated debate and shared best practice from other countries.
At the conference an Enterprise Ireland-sponsored Entrepreneurship Case Study Pack was launched to support the teaching and awareness-raising of entrepreneurship in the Irish third-level education sector. Developed with significant input from the sector, the resource was distributed to over 300 lecturers and teaching staff in more than 70 colleges and institutions in Ireland.
Ireland's infrastructural support for start-up and expanding companies was enhanced this year with the opening of a technologically superior centre for companies in the Internationally Traded Services sector. Minister Micheál Martin officially launched the first Enterprise Ireland Webworks in Cork in July. Webworks is a lifecycle office facility designed to aid rapid company growth by facilitating mutually beneficial networking, knowledge sharing and cooperation between tenant companies.
| Region | Total Employment | Gains | Losses | Net Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dublin/Mid-East | 59,330 |
+ 4,911 |
-4,089 |
+822 |
| Midlands | 8,712 |
+780 |
-593 |
+187 |
| North-East | 16,122 |
+1,635 |
-572 |
+1,063 |
| North-West | 5,922 |
+637 |
-471 |
+166 |
| South-East | 17,346 |
+1,226 |
-1,318 |
-92 |
| South-West South-West includes overseas natural resources companies in the Mid-East. |
22,081 |
+1,512 |
-2,559 |
-1,047 |
| West | 11,578 |
+1,192 |
-1,030 |
+162 |
| Total | 141,091 |
+11,893 |
-10,632 |
+1,261 |
