22 March, 2021

As part of Munster Technological University’s 2021 Enterprise Month in March, The Hincks Centre for Entrepreneurship Excellence hosted a second online event discussing the opportunities, challenges and supports available to rural entrepreneurs in Ireland.

• Dr Diarmuid McSweeney of moregrass.ie discussed his experience as a serial agri entrepreneur in Ireland and abroad.
• Maeve O’Keefe who founded Inspect 4 (rollover cattle crushes hoofcaredirect.com/about-hoofcare/) will discussed her experiences alongside running several enterprises on their east Cork farm. How and when both accessed support services, the pros and cons of their experiences and how they might be improved were discussed.

The webinar included a comparison of the supports available in Ireland and in Portugal. Joao Calejo from University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro presented research about a novel entrepreneurial support program in a rural region of Portugal called EMER-n (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0743016719312100).

Siobhán Finn from NACEC, the National Association of Community Enterprise Centres also spoke about the role of their 120 member centres through Ireland in providing infrastructure and supports to small and novel enterprises.

A Q&A discussion concluded the well attended session discussing potential limiting factors for rural entrepreneurship.