The Small Firms' Association (SFA) is urging the Government to increase its support to foreign national entrepreneurs.
SFA director Patricia Callan wants mainstream funding from the beginning of 2008 for the training for foreign nationals who wish to start their own businesses.
She said the growing population of young foreign nationals in the country represented an 'untapped pool of entrepreneurial talent'.
Ms Callan pointed out that most foreign nationals are in the 24-44 age group, which is the age that many people decide to start up their own businesses.
She added such individuals had already demonstrated an entrepreneurial spirit in coming to live and work in Ireland, and noted how entrepreneurial Irish people were when they moved abroad in the past.
She said that a pilot programme that promotes ethnic minority entrepreneurs in Ireland , funded by the EU Equal Community Initiative through the Department of Enterprise, has assisted 207 participant with training.
However, Ms Callan said there was no current specifically designed mainstream programme for this sector of society.
The SFA also criticised the processes facing foreign nationals who wish to establish their own businesses in Ireland.
The SFA said that currently, business permission must be granted by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
Ms Callan said that any individual pursuing this option must, among other requirements, transfer capital of €300,000 to the State and to employ at least two people and that this was an 'excessive onerous barrier'.
