Alison Cowzer and Eleanor McEvoy join Dragons’ Den panel

Is Ireland out of would-be entrepreneurs with, ahem, unique business propositions to delight peak-time television audiences? Hardly.

Dragon's Den returns for an eight-week run on RTÉ One this Sunday with two new "Dragons", Alison Cowzer and Eleanor McEvoy (not the singer), joining Barry O'Sullivan, Eamonn Quinn and series stalwart Gavin Duffy for this seventh run, which is sponsored by Emirates Airlines and produced for RTÉ by ShinAwiL.

Cowzer is co-founder and marketing/innovation director of East Coast Bakehouse, a biscuit manufacturing business based in Drogheda.

Serial entrepreneur

She is also managing director of The Company of Food, a food industry investment vehicle that she co-founded with husband Michael Carey.

McEvoy is a serial entrepreneur and chief executive of Budget Energy, a provider of low-cost electricity in Northern Ireland with more than 60,000 customers.

Asked by The Irish Times in 2013 what advice she would give entrepreneurs starting out today, McEvoy has a top tip that might be of some use for trembling Dragon's Den pitchers: "Feel the fear, and do it anyway... Remember, if you hide from risk, you hide from reward."