‘Colleges must do more for entrepreneurship’

THIRD level colleges need to do more to support entrepreneurship in this country, a leading educationalist said yesterday.

Dr Maria Hinfelaar, president of Limerick Institute of Technology, made her appeal at the LIT Mid-West Showcase hosted at the Limerick Dell campus.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny was among more than 3,000 who visited the event which was organised as part of Regional Business Week.

Dr Hinfelaar said that those charged with supporting the business community have to step out of their comfort zone and simply do more.

Participating companies ranged from software development, green tech, sustainable tourism, agri-food and sports services. The event also incorporated a seminar with a range of national and international keynote speakers, including Danuta Gray, chairperson of Telefonica O2 in Ireland.

Said Dr Hinfelaar: “The Mid-West has been hard hit by the recession but at the same time the region can pride itself on a healthy mix of industry players big and small, whether it’s in the IT sector, in pharma, renewable energy, engineering or financial services. Some are exporting, others are supplying products and services to the major exporting companies, others are delivering to the domestic consumers.”

Dr Hinfelaar said many of these companies have a great chance of succeeding due to innovative products and services.

She added: “But even the best of them will fail if they do not have the proper supports around them. Everyone involved in supporting business today has a responsibility to do more than we have ever done before to encourage and support these start-ups. To some degree we probably haven’t challenged ourselves enough in this regard up to now.

“But it’s time for us all to step up to the plate and go further than we have done before.”

Padraig Healy, site leader of Dell in Limerick, disclosed how their work is now helping agencies such as the FBI fight cyber crime due to the quality of their digital forensic products.