Fine Gael Galway Senator, Fidelma Healy Eames, has today (Wednesday) welcomed the announcement of two new initiatives by the Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, aimed at encouraging foreign entrepreneurs to invest here and create jobs.

“These schemes will encourage people with money to invest in Ireland, with the knock on benefit of creating jobs in the local economy. The Start-up Entrepreneur Programme and the Immigrant Investor Programme could prove beneficial to a county such as Galway which has a large international diaspora. We should encourage people with links to Galway who have been successful overseas to invest their money back here. These schemes will certainly be an added incentive for them to do so.

“The Start-up Entrepreneur Programme creates a more flexible approach in order to attract start-ups to Ireland. Migrants with a good business idea and funding of €70,000 will be allowed to live here to developing their business. Previously the minimum funding required was €300,000, which means we could be missing out on many young, ambitious entrepreneurs with great business ideas.

“The Immigrant Investor Programme will enable investors to live here with their immediate family for between two and five years. The required capital will range from €400,000 to €2 million, with envisaged investments including a specially created low interest Government Bond, investment in an Irish business for the protection or creation of jobs, or in some cases the purchase of property, including that held by NAMA.

“Applicants will be assessed by an Evaluation Committee, made up of representatives of IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and a number of Government departments. This will be key in deciding which applicants should be considered successful.