Prof. Colm O'Gorman co-authors report finding 2,200 individuals are starting new businesses each month

Colm O’Gorman, Professor of Entrepreneurship, DCU Business School (Pictured left) and co-author Paula Fitzsimons, National GEM Co-ordinator, recently launched their findings in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Report for Ireland for 2011. The report was helped launched by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton T.D. (Pictured Middle) and Kathleen Lynch TD, Minister for Disability, Equality, Mental Health & Older People. (Pictured Right)

More people started new businesses in 2011 than in the previous year. The report estimates that approximately 2,200 people set-up a new business each month during 2011. Findings of the 2011 GEM report indicate that almost three quarters of these entrepreneurs expect to become employers. While the majority of the businesses will remain small, the employment impact of these new enterprises is significant when taken together.

However, there has been a significant increase in the rate of owner managers closing a business - 2.8% in 2011 compared to 1.2% in 2010. This is a higher rate of closure than OECD or EU averages. 60% of those closing a business cite lack of profitability.

Furthermore, the prevalence of informal investors declined slightly and the average amount invested is lower than the norm across the OECD and EU, with the average amount invested in Ireland over a three year period falling to an average of €26,000 per investor in 2011 from €46,000 in 2010.

In 2011 for the first time GEM calculated the rate of entrepreneurial employee activity (intrapreneurship) in Ireland. One in ten of those in employment report that they have been engaged in an entrepreneurial activity for their employer during the past three years.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) provides an annual assessment of the entrepreneurial activity, aspirations and attitudes of individuals across a wide range of countries. GEM is the largest on-going study of entrepreneurial dynamics in the world

The Irish GEM report is supported by Enterprise Ireland, Forfás, the European Social Fund and the Department of Justice and Equality, under the Equality for Women Measure 2007-2013, and also by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. The 2011 GEM Report for Ireland is available on www.enterprise.gov.ie/Publications/GEM-Report.pdf