Small businesses are the backbone of Ireland’s rural economy with agribusinesses and farm enterprises making up a huge cohort of our indigenous industry, many of which are run by women.
Yet the challenges faced by female entrepreneurs are manifold, with a huge disparity in supports available compared to their male counterparts.
Despite there being 10% more women than men across the European Union, females are hugely under-represented when it comes to funding for start ups.
Maria Walsh:
North West Fine Gael MEP
North West Fine Gael MEP Maria Walsh sits on the EU Parliament’s Women’s Rights and Gender Equality and Agriculture and Rural Development committees. She says a lot more needs to be done to level the playing field to allow more rural female entrepreneurs to thrive.
“There’s an abundance of women in rural Ireland who have side hustles or businesses. They’re doing it from their kitchen tables, on and off farms. Be it a service or a product, often they can’t progress their ideas. There are so many localised, indigenous, small businesses from agri food to agri tourism and we need these skill sets to make us competitive,” she says.
“Women entrepreneurs, who make up 40% of all entrepreneurs in the EU only have access to 2.4% of total venture capital, according to 2021 figures which is the most recent research available.
“When you bring that down to national and local level, it’s no wonder that women in rural communities are p***ed off – they can’t get the support they need to develop and grow their businesses.”
Several rural enterprise programmes have been launched across the country in recent years. One of the most successful is ACORNS (Accelerating the Creation of Rural Nascent Start-ups), which is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
Another is Empower, run by Atlantic Technological University’s Innovation Hubs, in Letterkenny, Sligo Castlebar and Galway.
Maria believes more can and should be done to support women, given the success of such initiatives.
“ACORNS is a great scheme to drive women entrepreneurs towards, and the proof of that lies in the fact that those who have taken part have increased their revenue by almost €10m [collectively],” she explains.
“We’ve also had the hugely successful pilot project Empower which has done a phenomenal amount of work in getting rural start ups from the kitchen table to workable businesses. These projects should be developed further, as the evidence is there that they work.
“Yet the EU Commission keeps changing the goal posts so instead of continuing to fund projects like Empower, they introduce different criteria which forces everyone to go back to the drawing board.”
Funding isn’t the only obstacle facing women who want to turn their ideas into viable businesses in rural areas.
Accessing childcare is a huge drawback for those who want to branch out from traditional farming into start up businesses, as one Waterford woman can attest.
MEP Maria Walsh. \Fergal Phillips
Aileen Barron, Green Acre Marketing, Co Waterford
Aileen Barron set up Green Acre Marketing in 2013, initially working from her home at the dairy farm that she and her husband James own. A mother of four young children, this working arrangement didn’t suit on any level, particularly as her fledgling business started to grow.
“There are so many challenges facing women when it comes to starting a business but aligning the caring role with that of running your own company was the biggest for me,” she says.
“It’s not just mothers and children this affects. People have elderly parents, adult siblings who require care, and it’s a very hard balancing act to manage these commitments alongside running your own business.
“I definitely found childcare the hardest part and that was as much due to the fact that I was trying to be fully present in two roles: as a mother and as a business owner. At times it felt like I was two different people.”
Aileen says the financial obstacles are another big challenge, as is gaining knowledge and information on what supports are out there.
“My company grew pretty quickly so I had to move out of the home office, which wasn’t a bad thing as that brought a firm line that separated business and home life,” she adds.
“Everyone is different and sitting at a kitchen table was never part of my plan. I am constantly striving to build my company to the next level, but I think more should be done to support entrepreneurs.When it came to childcare, the only way it worked for me was to pay for private, in-house care, which was expensive. I’m not entitled to subsidies because my children aren’t in creche, yet I pay my stamps and taxes, which my payslip reflects.
“Why can’t Revenue – who see the children’s allowance going into my bank account so they know I have children – join the dots and give me and all the other women out there in a similar situation tax relief?” she says.
Aileen has found support and solidarity in her fellow female entrepreneurs, first through the ACORNS programme which she participated in when it was rolled out as a pilot programme in 2014. In more recent times she has taken part in the Grass Ceiling project running across nine EU member states.
Living Labs from each country focus on supporting rural women-led innovation and Aileen has shared the challenges around female entrepreneurship, from an Irish perspective in Brussels.
“I got so much value out of ACORNS. It was so good to mix with like-minded people who understand what you’re going through or have faced similar challenges and can share what worked for them,” adds Aileen.
Aileen Barron, Green Acre Marketing.
“Networking with other young businesses allowed me to realise a game plan for growth. It has given Green Acre Marketing the confidence to grow and diversify which we’re continuing to do.”
“In terms of funding, I can understand how challenging it is, even though I didn’t have a huge outlay at the start. But if you’re not prepared to take a risk to drive your business forward, why would someone else?”
Maria Walsh says she will continue to lobby for better supports for women who she says are underrepresented in every aspect of life, from policy to funding.
“I have been lobbying since my first term in Parliament to have EU officers based in every county in Ireland, delivering a one-stop-shop service that would make a real difference in supporting women to scale and grow their businesses,” she explains.
“To have someone in each local authority would be transformative for women, to work with them and help with financial backing. Galway and Mayo seem to be taking this on with fantastic research and funding grants coming through Atlantic Technological University but these aren’t specific to entrepreneurs. There is a huge skill set out there but people are not talking to each other because they don’t know the help is there.”
EU Presidency
Maria adds that Ireland taking over the EU Presidency in the summer should help push the issue further up the agenda.
“Ireland is coming into its term of the EU Presidency in July, which will allow us to elevate the key issues in an Irish context, to get women on the podium, over the six-month term,” she adds.
“We need to centralise the LEADER funding available and ring fence it, which doesn’t apply to women even though the CAP basic payment is ring fenced.
“Irish women represent less than 14% of farm holders, which is considerably less than the 40% average across the EU.
“We have put forward a proposal to the European Investment Bank, the Female Founders Fund, which would offer low interest rates to women, so we will have to see what happens with that over the coming months.
“If we don’t make women a political priority across a number of services, the needle doesn’t move. If we’re to develop sustainable businesses in rural Ireland, we have to target the supports and direct the finance to where it can make a real difference.
“Women aren’t looking for hand-outs, but they are looking for help to overcome all the difficulties involved in getting their businesses off the ground.”
Figure 1.
Small businesses are the backbone of Ireland’s rural economy with agribusinesses and farm enterprises making up a huge cohort of our indigenous industry, many of which are run by women.
Yet the challenges faced by female entrepreneurs are manifold, with a huge disparity in supports available compared to their male counterparts.
Despite there being 10% more women than men across the European Union, females are hugely under-represented when it comes to funding for start ups.
Maria Walsh:
North West Fine Gael MEP
North West Fine Gael MEP Maria Walsh sits on the EU Parliament’s Women’s Rights and Gender Equality and Agriculture and Rural Development committees. She says a lot more needs to be done to level the playing field to allow more rural female entrepreneurs to thrive.
“There’s an abundance of women in rural Ireland who have side hustles or businesses. They’re doing it from their kitchen tables, on and off farms. Be it a service or a product, often they can’t progress their ideas. There are so many localised, indigenous, small businesses from agri food to agri tourism and we need these skill sets to make us competitive,” she says.
“Women entrepreneurs, who make up 40% of all entrepreneurs in the EU only have access to 2.4% of total venture capital, according to 2021 figures which is the most recent research available.
“When you bring that down to national and local level, it’s no wonder that women in rural communities are p***ed off – they can’t get the support they need to develop and grow their businesses.”
Several rural enterprise programmes have been launched across the country in recent years. One of the most successful is ACORNS (Accelerating the Creation of Rural Nascent Start-ups), which is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
Another is Empower, run by Atlantic Technological University’s Innovation Hubs, in Letterkenny, Sligo Castlebar and Galway.
Maria believes more can and should be done to support women, given the success of such initiatives.
“ACORNS is a great scheme to drive women entrepreneurs towards, and the proof of that lies in the fact that those who have taken part have increased their revenue by almost €10m [collectively],” she explains.
“We’ve also had the hugely successful pilot project Empower which has done a phenomenal amount of work in getting rural start ups from the kitchen table to workable businesses. These projects should be developed further, as the evidence is there that they work.
“Yet the EU Commission keeps changing the goal posts so instead of continuing to fund projects like Empower, they introduce different criteria which forces everyone to go back to the drawing board.”
Funding isn’t the only obstacle facing women who want to turn their ideas into viable businesses in rural areas.
Accessing childcare is a huge drawback for those who want to branch out from traditional farming into start up businesses, as one Waterford woman can attest.
MEP Maria Walsh. \Fergal Phillips
Aileen Barron, Green Acre Marketing, Co Waterford
Aileen Barron set up Green Acre Marketing in 2013, initially working from her home at the dairy farm that she and her husband James own. A mother of four young children, this working arrangement didn’t suit on any level, particularly as her fledgling business started to grow.
“There are so many challenges facing women when it comes to starting a business but aligning the caring role with that of running your own company was the biggest for me,” she says.
“It’s not just mothers and children this affects. People have elderly parents, adult siblings who require care, and it’s a very hard balancing act to manage these commitments alongside running your own business.
“I definitely found childcare the hardest part and that was as much due to the fact that I was trying to be fully present in two roles: as a mother and as a business owner. At times it felt like I was two different people.”
Aileen says the financial obstacles are another big challenge, as is gaining knowledge and information on what supports are out there.
“My company grew pretty quickly so I had to move out of the home office, which wasn’t a bad thing as that brought a firm line that separated business and home life,” she adds.
“Everyone is different and sitting at a kitchen table was never part of my plan. I am constantly striving to build my company to the next level, but I think more should be done to support entrepreneurs.When it came to childcare, the only way it worked for me was to pay for private, in-house care, which was expensive. I’m not entitled to subsidies because my children aren’t in creche, yet I pay my stamps and taxes, which my payslip reflects.
“Why can’t Revenue – who see the children’s allowance going into my bank account so they know I have children – join the dots and give me and all the other women out there in a similar situation tax relief?” she says.
Aileen has found support and solidarity in her fellow female entrepreneurs, first through the ACORNS programme which she participated in when it was rolled out as a pilot programme in 2014. In more recent times she has taken part in the Grass Ceiling project running across nine EU member states.
Living Labs from each country focus on supporting rural women-led innovation and Aileen has shared the challenges around female entrepreneurship, from an Irish perspective in Brussels.
“I got so much value out of ACORNS. It was so good to mix with like-minded people who understand what you’re going through or have faced similar challenges and can share what worked for them,” adds Aileen.
Aileen Barron, Green Acre Marketing.
“Networking with other young businesses allowed me to realise a game plan for growth. It has given Green Acre Marketing the confidence to grow and diversify which we’re continuing to do.”
“In terms of funding, I can understand how challenging it is, even though I didn’t have a huge outlay at the start. But if you’re not prepared to take a risk to drive your business forward, why would someone else?”
Maria Walsh says she will continue to lobby for better supports for women who she says are underrepresented in every aspect of life, from policy to funding.
“I have been lobbying since my first term in Parliament to have EU officers based in every county in Ireland, delivering a one-stop-shop service that would make a real difference in supporting women to scale and grow their businesses,” she explains.
“To have someone in each local authority would be transformative for women, to work with them and help with financial backing. Galway and Mayo seem to be taking this on with fantastic research and funding grants coming through Atlantic Technological University but these aren’t specific to entrepreneurs. There is a huge skill set out there but people are not talking to each other because they don’t know the help is there.”
EU Presidency
Maria adds that Ireland taking over the EU Presidency in the summer should help push the issue further up the agenda.
“Ireland is coming into its term of the EU Presidency in July, which will allow us to elevate the key issues in an Irish context, to get women on the podium, over the six-month term,” she adds.
“We need to centralise the LEADER funding available and ring fence it, which doesn’t apply to women even though the CAP basic payment is ring fenced.
“Irish women represent less than 14% of farm holders, which is considerably less than the 40% average across the EU.
“We have put forward a proposal to the European Investment Bank, the Female Founders Fund, which would offer low interest rates to women, so we will have to see what happens with that over the coming months.
“If we don’t make women a political priority across a number of services, the needle doesn’t move. If we’re to develop sustainable businesses in rural Ireland, we have to target the supports and direct the finance to where it can make a real difference.
“Women aren’t looking for hand-outs, but they are looking for help to overcome all the difficulties involved in getting their businesses off the ground.”
Figure 1.
SHARING OPTIONS