Fine Gael TD for Wicklow & East Carlow, Andrew Doyle has said that Wicklow & Carlow businessmen James Keogh & Diarmuid Byrne will next Sunday (December 6th) compete for the title of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) for 2015. The competition is run by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in order to encourage young entrepreneurs to innovate and create the products that will enhance their business. “I want to commend both James & Diarmuid for reaching the finals of this prestigious and extremely competitive national competition. They both presented their idea to the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton and the panel of judges at a judging session in the Department of Jobs in Dublin this week. This was the participants opportunity to make a final pitch to the judges ahead of the IBYE National Final in Google’s European HQ in Dublin on Sunday 6th December. Both James & Diarmuid had to come through county stages and regional stages of the competition in order to reach the final.
Over 1,400 young Irish entrepreneurs, aged between 18 and 30, participated in this year’s €2 million IBYE competition, part of the Action Plan for Jobs 2015, which is being run by the Local Enterprise Offices. James from Wicklow has been selected from the ‘Best Established’ category and represents Rathwood and Diarmuid is selected from the ‘Best New Idea’ category and represents a business called EquiRatings in Carlow. “The 24 finalists from 17 counties have now made it to the national final for a chance to win an investment of up to €70,000 in their business. By reaching the final James and Diarmuid join a select group of the top young entrepreneurs in the country. I wish them success in the final on December 6th. “The Government has initiated this competition in order to encourage and support entrepreneurs from around the country. Two thirds of all new jobs are created by start-ups, and that is why we are putting in place a range of measures, including the IBYE competition, to support, encourage and celebrate the young people who start those businesses that are the bedrock of our economy. “Participation in IBYE provides can prove invaluable for young entrepreneurs. Through the course of this year’s IBYE competition, 450 young entrepreneurs have already participated in business bootcamps, 92 local winners have won ‘game changing’ investments of between €10,000 and €20,000 for their businesses and hundreds more have been offered training and mentoring opportunities.” “This year’s ‘Best Business Ideas’ include affordable diagnostics for neglected tropical diseases, a new Irish whiskey brand, mobile apps for e-Books and CAD drawings and medical devices for bowel cancer patients. In addition, technology for patients with diabetes, software for taxi drivers and an online polling tool for bloggers are also among the finalists in that category. “For start-ups that are less than two years old, the next category includes a wearable fertility tracker for women, technology to convert waste tyres into fuel, healthy convenient foods and beverages and mobile apps for marketing teams. Software for the warehousing industry, a tortilla chip manufacturer and an equestrian data analytics company are also in the final eight of the ‘Best Start-Up Business’ category.”
