Ireland Is Killing Its Entrepreneurs

The David McWilliams Podcast

David McWilliams

News & Politics

4.5 • 692 Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2026

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ireland is now officially the worst country in Europe for young entrepreneurs. Just 5.1% of our 20-somethings are building their own businesses, less than half the rate in Slovakia. So what the hell happened? This week, we ask why young Irish people have stopped backing themselves, and why a country that looks rich on paper is quietly losing the very people who make economies dance. We get into the difference between wealth that's extracted (the multinationals) and wealth that's created (the Ryanairs), and why one is far more fragile than it looks. We bring in Schumpeter and Nassim Taleb, follow a hypothetical 27-year-old called Kiera as the numbers crush her before she's even begun, and ask whether Ireland has become a nation of doubters, quietly punishing anyone who dares to have a go. We float a fix: stop parking the multinational windfall in a pension fund our 25-year-olds will never see, and turn it into a startup fund they can actually use. Because without risk-takers, there's no return, and without return, there's no economy.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before we start a heads up on what is coming up on the show,
0:04.4	today's podcast is all about the fast and rapidly disappearing Irish entrepreneur.
0:13.0	Eurostat has just released figures that shows that Ireland is not only the third worst,
0:19.3	the fourth, the fifth worst in Europe in terms of entrepreneurs.
0:21.6	It is the worst place in Europe for young entrepreneurial talent in terms of the people in their 20s who are actually out building businesses.
0:32.0	Only 5% of young Irish people are building businesses as opposed to 12% of Slovakians.
0:38.6	And we're going to look and see why is this?
0:41.8	What does it mean?
0:43.5	Why is it happening?
0:45.1	And will this make the economy less or more vulnerable to shocks in the future such as AI?
0:53.6	That's all coming up in a couple of minutes.
0:58.4	To understand the economy, you have to understand human nature.
1:04.6	This podcast is powered by ACAST.
1:10.1	How are you doing there?
1:11.2	It is time for the podcast.
1:13.8	John, you're chucking away there,
1:15.2	but we're talking about a very serious topic today.
1:17.8	Yes, we are.
1:18.3	We're talking about a serious topic
1:19.3	because Eurostat,
1:21.0	which is obviously the statistical office
1:23.3	of the European Union,
	...

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