BUSINESSMAN DENIS O’Brien has called on the incoming government to “radically reduce” the number of State agencies and do more to incentivise job creation.
The telecom and broadcasting tycoon said yesterday he was not backing any particular party or individual in the general election – “none whatsoever” – but hoped they would make it easier for entrepreneurs to start business.
“Our unemployment rate can be brought down by helping small and medium enterprises take on people. There are a lot of companies who are doing really well in the country and can take on three or five or 20 employees to add to their existing employment levels. There needs to be a more friendly and pro-business environment.”
Asked what the first thing the next government should do to encourage job creation, he said: “Radically reduce the number of State agencies that businesses have to interface with, and incentivise people to employ people.”
Mr O’Brien was speaking after the finals of the Newstalk Student Enterprise competition, held over Sunday and yesterday at the Tipperary Institute in Thurles.
Before presenting the prizes in his role as chairman of the third-level competition, he told all budding entrepreneurs to “forget about the economic climate” and pursue their ideas.
“Even in these times, there’s still an opportunity to create a business successfully.”
This year's overall winners of the competition, which is supported by The Irish Times, were from Dublin Institute of Technology. The four-person DIT team of Aisling Leonard, Ciara Quinn, Stephanie Lawless and captain Mattie Weldon, mentored by Paul Donnelly, win a study trip to the Caribbean to shadow Digicel executives. They beat IT Tralee, Tipperary Institute and Dundalk IT in the final after presenting a solution to a real-life business scenario in front of a panel of four judges.
Over 1,300 students, making up 325 teams, entered this year's Newstalk Student Enterprise Competition and the judges for the two-day finals were Bobby Kerr, of the Insomnia coffee chain and Dragons' Den; developer and philanthropist Niall Mellon; David Bunworth, of David Bunworth Associates; and Newstalk chief executive Frank Cronin.
Denis O’Brien said afterwards that Irish indigenous industries had “a major role to play” in creating employment in the next three to five years, and could do that if they got support and incentives. “I think we’ve bottomed out and I’d be optimistic in a broad sense about Ireland. I think we’ve come through the worst of it.”