New kids on the enterprise block

A recent assessment of the ‘bright young stars of Ireland’s tech scene’ by The Business Post suggests a strong social dimension in this new generation of talent. The line-up includes Joel Olympio, co-founder and CEO of Chapter, which designs technologies to support neurodivergent people, and Fionn Delahunty, founder of Lua Health, which focuses on mental health in the workplace.

Policy puzzle

Those starting out young benefit from an increasing array of support, including the Student Entrepreneur Awards and Enterprise Ireland’s Young Social Innovators fund and New Frontiers programme.

Yet in its 2027 pre-Budget submission ISME (the independent association for Irish SMEs) pointed out: ‘Ireland has the lowest entrepreneurial participation rate for 20–29-year-olds in the EU27, at 5.1% against an EU average of 7.9%.’ It was citing figures from a recent EU-wide study that put leaders Slovakia (12.2%), Malta (10.5%) and Romania (10.3%) well ahead of Ireland, which was in last place.

It was a similar situation a decade ago when The Times also reported Ireland as ‘having the lowest proportions of young entrepreneurs in the EU’ in 2015, with less than 4% of 15–29-year-olds describing themselves as self-employed against an EU average of 6.5%, and reports suggesting ‘Ireland does not have an entrepreneurship strategy aimed specifically at youth’.

On the other hand, a 2024 study by neobank Bunq argued Ireland is ‘a highly attractive destination for entrepreneurs and digital nomads looking to kick off their next venture’, while the Innovators Business Environment Index puts Ireland in a strong position internationally, ranking the country in 14th place globally, with Slovakia 36th and Romania 39th.

Attractions and distractions

Tom McCarthy, founder of the youth entrepreneur accelerator programme Patch, points to opportunities in the established tech sector as having an inadvertent downside. ‘We have plenty of well-paid corporate jobs, which are more attractive to most young people than creating your own business,’ he told The Business Post.

Eurostat put Ireland’s under-25 unemployment rate at 11.8% in January 2026, against an EU average of 15.1%, but a recent report by the National Youth Council of Ireland points out the number of young people in employment is ‘well below’ Celtic Tiger levels, while the proportion of working 25–34-year-olds living with their parents rose from 27% in 2017 to 40% in 2022, which suggest why a certain career risk aversion may have taken hold.

Also pertinent is that those with big ideas tend to get drawn elsewhere. The Collisons are the poster boys of Irish tech success but Stripe was, from the get-go, a US-funded success story and remains firmly entrenched in the San Francisco tech scene.

It is a pattern replicated across the EU. Around 22% of Slovakia’s university students study abroad, compared with an OECD average of 4%; while a World Bank report in 2024 concluded ‘Romanian society has been aging and suffering one of the most severe brain drains globally’.

EU strategy

Growing youth entrepreneurship is increasingly an EU priority as part of the bid to improve competitiveness. Earlier this year, the European Economic and Social Committee set out an opinion formation report that called for a comprehensive and coordinated strategy among member states, with a focus on accessible financing, tailored training, mentoring, coaching, incubation and building strong local ecosystems.

The report also targets:

• the expansion of youth-tailored funding instruments
• lower compliance costs and the creation of a business-friendly environment for young entrepreneurs
• embedding entrepreneurial mindsets in all education and training systems
• mentoring, sponsorship, networking and internationalisation opportunities
• the reduction of entrepreneurship gaps for underrepresented groups.

Irish action

Closer to home, the rationale for supporting next-generation entrepreneurship is well recognised. David McGee, leader of strategy consultancy at PwC Ireland, says: ‘The country’s long-term economic strength hinges on its ability to grow homegrown businesses into globally competitive, Irish-owned multinationals.’

A recent review by PwC raises concerns that ‘many promising firms face hurdles in moving beyond initial growth or are sold too soon due to structural barriers that hinder scaling’.

It identifies a range of issues that ‘dampen ambition and limit the development of globally competitive Irish firms’. The obstacles include access to finance, skills shortages, limited innovation capacity, structural hurdles, compliance pressures and resource limits.

In contrast, Malta has introduced regulations to allow 16- and 17-year-olds resident in Malta to formally incorporate private limited liability companies with either ‘youth enterprise’ or the YE suffix in the name. The aim is to encourage innovation and economic participation at an early age, with the youth enterprises offering early-stage entrepreneurship opportunities while remaining subject to targeted regulatory safeguards, including mentor oversight and supervision by the Malta Business Registry.

Ultimately, whether Ireland is truly bottom of the list for youth entrepreneurship may be a less important question than what the country, and the EU generally, can do to better foster business talent in the coming years. As every entrepreneur knows, it’s not where you start but where you finish that matters.