Enterprise Ireland supported the setting up of 61 new high growth potential start-ups in 2003, which involved a total investment of €75m. It is expected that these businesses could employ 1,900 people within three years.
20% of the start-up companies were as a direct result of funding projects from the third level sector, the Business Start-Up Showcase, organised by Enterprise Ireland, heard.
'Ireland needs entrepreneurs with the drive and ambition to grow businesses capable of competing in world markets,' Minister of State for Trade and Commerce, Michael Ahern, told the showcase.
'The companies here today are build on a solid foundation of innovation and intellectual capital and are further evidence of a fundamental change in industrial structure as Ireland perceptibly shifts from a developing to a developed economy,' he added.
