The Minister for Small Business, John Perry, has announced an extra €3.78m to the County and City Enterprise Boards (CEBs) to fund job creation projects in 2012.

Food producers from across Cork and Kerry will gather for a regional ‘food summit’ next week to explore ways of boosting an industry which has the potential to create up to 2,500 jobs over the next eight years.

Entrepreneurship is becoming an essential part of third-level learning, writes John Hearne.

Artisan food companies in Cork and Kerry are joining forces to promote their wares and build on current employment levels.

Fifty Cork food and beverage businesses hope to boost their export sales following a targeted two-day food industry trip to Amsterdam.

AIB Bank is open to lending money to start-up businesses and house hunters, one bank executive said yesterday in reply to criticism from a loan applicant.

Fianna Fáil wants to introduce a new ''fat tax' in the budget - along with an increase in the taxes on alcohol, cigarettes, and gambling.

This year’s finalists for the 15th annual National Enterprise Awards have been announced.

AN EU fund allocated to Ireland for the first time has resulted in 250 jobs being created by workers affected by the closure of Dell’s manufacturing operation in Limerick in January 2009.

UCC’s free IGNITE Programme, which enables graduates to turn innovative ideas into new products and services, is seeking fresh applicants.

Cork: UCC is hosting an information evening on Ignite, a new 12-month programme for graduates to accelerate business start-ups and to convert innovative ideas into products and services, next Wednesday, November 24, at 6pm.

SPEED dating was devised as a solution to help couples get together. And in the conference centre of the Radisson Hotel in Cork yesterday it seemed like every business in Ireland was looking for love.

A NETWORKING event, the largest of its kind in Ireland, is expected to generate contracts worth €10 million.

NEARLY 60% of former Dell staff, and hundreds more workers from service supply companies who also lost their jobs when the computer giant relocated to Poland, have reacted positively to an innovative EU support fund aimed at retraining and upskilling.

ENTREPRENEURIAL talent in the near €20 billion Irish food and drinks industry needs to be continually nurtured, the inaugural Cork Food Forum was told in Ballincollig

SOME of the country’s top food industry analysts will gather in Cork later this month to discuss the future of the multi-billion euro industry.

A major business linkage event for business owners in the Republic of Ireland to meet with Northern Ireland counterparts takes place next Tuesday in Cork.