It was announced today that Startup Ireland and Ibec have launched Ireland’s first Startup Manifesto. This document was prepared following extensive consultation with industry stakeholders and represents a checklist of actions required to ensure that Ireland moves towards being a globally relevant startup hub.    
  
The purpose of the manifesto is to highlight areas that need improvement and to offer possible solutions to ensure that Ireland becomes a globally relevant startup hub. The manifesto seeks to address issues across four key pillars – access to talent, access to finance, startup supports and the general business environment.
  
Startup Ireland’s hope is to reflect the views and perspectives of as many entrepreneurs, investors, advisors and other key figures within the startup scene in Ireland. Startup Ireland’s advisory board will be producing position papers and budget submissions to address priority areas of concern, including the current capital gains tax treatment for entrepreneurs, employee share option schemes and access to Angel finance.
  
Speaking at today's presentation, Startup Ireland Manifesto Coordinator, Lorcan O’Sullivan said, "Ireland is recognised as having a lot of the essential elements to be an attractive Startup hub. However, when benchmarked against other countries, we see gaps in the ecosystem and the policy here which need to be addressed. If Ireland is to attract and retain entrepreneurs capable of building globally competitive startups, we need to ensure that Ireland has a startup environment better than competing locations."

Source: www.businessworld.ie