Enterprise Digital Advisory Forum to support Irish SMEs

Ireland has a new Enterprise Digital Advisory Forum, which was established on Wednesday 4 May 2022 and chaired by Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, Robert Troy TD. 

The Forum will support the Government in driving the digitalisation of enterprise across Ireland by bringing together representatives of indigenous enterprise, multi-national enterprises, and experts in digital technologies and their adoption by enterprise.

Speaking about the new forum formation Robert Troy TD said, “The digital economy presents huge opportunities for Irish SMEs to improve services, enhance customer experience, and increase competitiveness.”

“I want to support those Irish businesses to make that transition; to build on the positives of the past two years and continue to embrace digitalisation and all it can offer. By doing this, we can future proof our economy in the years ahead.”

Supporting digital commitments

The Enterprise Digital Advisory Forum was established as part of the commitment to both the AI – Here for Good: A National AI Strategy for Ireland and Ireland’s National Digital Strategy, Harnessing Digital: The Digital Ireland Framework.

“I am determined to drive a real step change in the level of digitalisation across all enterprises - by 2030, I want 90% of SMEs to have achieved basic digital intensity,” he continued. “With the insights of the experts on the Forum, we can work to help realise the benefits of those technologies for Irish enterprise of all sizes.” 

The Forum will also support the implementation of the enterprise aspects of an overall National Digital Strategy, providing an important setting for enterprise to be able to provide feedback to Government on various challenges and opportunities they identify in relation to digitalisation. This information will then be shared across Government using the structures provided for in the National Digital Strategy.

Forum members

Positions on the Forum were filled following an open expression of interest call and assessment process. The sixteen members of the forum are listed below.

Kieran McCorry, National Technology Officer, Microsoft Ireland

Kathryn O'Donovan, Government Affairs & Public Policy, Google

Lorraine Higgins, Secretary General, Digital Business Ireland

Shona D'Arcy, Founder, Kids Speech Labs

Allan Beechinor, CEO, Altada Technology Solutions

Aidan Kehoe, CEO, Skout/Barracuda

Terri O’Donovan, Digital & Technology Site Lead, Janssen Sciences Ireland UC

Barry O'Brien, Government & Regulatory Affairs, IBM

Barry O'Sullivan, Director, Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics, UCC

DC Cahalane, Partner, Jolt Venture Studio

Edward McDonnell, Director, CeADAR

Eoin Costello, Project Director, Digital HQ

John Clancy, CEO, Chatspace

Patricia Scanlon, Founder, SoapBox Labs

Tanya Thompson, CTO, Sluamor Ltd

Erik O’Donovan, Head of Digital Policy, Ibec

You can find out more about the forum members in Silicon Republic's coverage here.

Enterprise Nation's digital commitment

Enterprise Nation is committed to helping improve the digital capabilities of small businesses across Ireland.

With support from Microsoft, Klarna and Vodafone the small business network is helping small businesses realise their digital potential through the Go and Grow Online programme.

Find out more about Go and Grow Online Ireland.