Business

Ireland home to 35,000 new entrepreneurs as Brexit draws talent across Irish Sea

IRELAND is at an all-time high for new business as Britain continues to haemorrhage talent in the post-Brexit fallout.

According to new figures from Enterprise Ireland, Ireland is now home to 35,000 new entrepreneurs – more than before the recession.

Of those new business owners, almost nine-in-10 said they were pursuing their own business for opportunity rather than necessity.

A further seven-in-10 expected to be an employer within three years of starting up, while almost four-in-10 expected to employ 10 or more people within five years.

Almost 80 per cent of new business were in consumer and business services, according to the Irish Government's figures.

Ireland may also be reaping the benefits of the Brexit Factor.

Recruitment firm Morgan McKinley’s said the first half of this year has been Ireland’s busiest yet, with employment levels at its highest rate since before the economic downturn.

With technology, financial services, engineering and sciences the top employers in Ireland, it said Brexit has influenced the influx of talent to Ireland – particularly from London.

“The employment monitor in Britain showed a 33 per cent decline in professionals looking for opportunities in Britain,” said Director of Inward Investment Trayc Keevans.

“And Ireland is seeing converses of that as there’s been a five per cent increase of talent here – and we’re certainly seeing that on the ground.”

Employment rates in Ireland doesn’t look set to stall in the coming months either.

Insurance powerhouse Royal London is set to create a permanent set-up on the Emerald Isle ‘to enable business in Ireland and mitigate any uncertainty’.

The group is the latest to make the leap to Dublin in the wake of Brexit, after American banking giant CitiBank announced its move in May.

This followed JP Morgan's decision to build a 22-storey office block on the south side of Dublin’s River Liffey.

Compared to the global entrepreneur market, Ireland’s figures are similar to the United States and, closer to home, it ranks within the top five for new business owners and intrapreneurs – employees who develop new business models and projects inhouse for employers.

But the gender gap in new Irish entrepreneurs showed two thirds more males than females, at 65 per cent to 37 per cent.

Referring to these figures, Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Frances Fitzgerald TD said: “That gap narrows as one moves from actively planning to actually starting a new business.

“At one in every 14 women in Ireland, the number of female entrepreneurs in 2016 is the highest noted since GEM research started in 2000.”

The Minister also said there are current initiatives to encourage female entrepreneurship, which help to reduce the gap.

Of those who became new business owners in 2016 in Ireland, 60 per cent were Irish-born.

The majority of new businesses were owned by people in their mid-thirties.

Those aged between 50-64 accounted for 24 per cent of start-ups.