Cork entrepreneur Conor Galvin is among the contestants on the new series of BBC One's The Apprentice, which begins on Thursday night.
The owner of the photobooth business Press Print Paper - "creating instant, vintage-style newspaper prints with an interactive photobooth" - wants it to become a household name and has plans to expand to London, Manchester, and Birmingham.
The Southern Star reports that Galvin hails from Glengarriff and is the first Cork-based hopeful in the history of the show.
He is one of 20 contestants vying for a £250,000 investment in their business from boss Alan Sugar.
Galvin studied medicine at university but dropped out twice before graduating in law and business.
He has said his business may be fun and light-hearted, but he is a serious candidate who is "constantly learning the tougher side of strategy, structure, and scaling".
The first episode of the new series will see the contestants in Hong Kong.
Looking ahead to the new series, the show's 20th anniversary season, Sugar told the BBC: "There's no one thing I can put my finger on, watch out for this or watch out for that, because they're all great episodes."
"The first episode is excellent, and it was excellent because the boardroom was excellent," he continued.
"The events that occurred leading up to that boardroom were very, very good because there were conflicts among a couple of candidates that really played out well.
"And if I say so myself, I think I was very good in it!"
The new series of The Apprentice begins on BBC One on Thursday, 29 January at 9:00pm.
Angela Scanlon is the host of the spin-off show The Apprentice: Unfinished Business, which begins on Thursday on BBC Two at 10:05pm.
She was recently one of the contestants on The Celebrity Apprentice: Christmas Specials on BBC One.
Additional Reporting: Press Association
