ROSCOMMON STUDENTS SET FOR NATIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP FINAL
Roscommon County Council’s Local Enterprise Office has announced that teenage entrepreneurs from Roscommon Community College will represent Roscommon at this year’s Student Enterprise Programme National Final on Thursday 7th May.
The students all took part in the Roscommon County Final on March 19th, which was held in the Abbey Hotel, Roscommon. 489 students from 8 schools took part in the annual programme locally.
The enterprise education initiative, funded by the Government of Ireland through Enterprise Ireland and delivered by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices in local authorities across Ireland, saw over 30,000 students from just under 500 secondary schools across the country take part in 2025 / 2026.
The programme, which is the largest student start-up programme in the country, supports students to create, design and market their own business, all with the hope of reaching the National Finals.
In the Intermediate Category, Roscommon will be represented on May 7th by Isaac and George Naughten from Roscommon Community College with his project “Beo go Deo”.
In the Senior Category of the competition, Roscommon will be represented on May 7th by Darragh Conroy and Oisin Connolly from Roscommon Community College with their project “Split Smart”.
Special guests at the Roscommon Final included the Leas Cathaoirleach of Roscommon County Council, Cllr. John Keogh and Director of Services with responsibility for Enterprise, Sean Mullarkey who were accompanied by LEO’s Head of Enterprise, Louise Ward.
The County has a very successful track record in the student enterprise competition. In 2023, Roscommon Community College students Joshua McCormack and Evan McNeil were inspired from seeing people climbing into wheelie bins to try and compact their rubbish manually and created the ‘McCompactor’ to solve the issue.
McCompactors, is a device that enables users to easily compact rubbish in standard wheelie bins and they took first place in the Senior Category of the Local Enterprise Office run programme. The steel fabricated device works on all standard household wheelie bins.
Leas Cathaoirleach of Roscommon County Council Cllr. John Keogh said the awards demonstrated the high level of innovation and business flair enjoyed by students throughout Roscommon: “These awards clearly demonstrate the emerging business ambition and drive of all our participating students.
“As a county, we are always looking at ways to drive business growth and development through innovation and entrepreneurship by encouraging innovation. These awards support and encourage new business ideas that will draw further business and create job opportunities for our county”, said Cllr. Keogh.
Director of Service with responsibility for Enterprise Sean Mullarkey acknowledged the winners of this year’s Student Enterprise Awards, claiming the awards supported and encouraged the young business leaders of the future. “These awards are an initiative which honour and recognise communities’ across the region. Support, empowering and recognising the work of our budding business people of the future is vital to the future of our local economy,” Mr. Mullarkey remarked.
Mr Mullarkey also paid tribute to Louise Ward, Head of Enterprise at Local Enterprise Office Roscommon who is retiring in the coming weeks after 27 years of dedicated service to local businesses, acknowledging that “Louise has made a significant contribution to the Student Enterprise Programme in Roscommon as well as being a member of the National Committee Student Enterprise Programme”.
Speaking at the county final, Head of Enterprise with Roscommon LEO Louise Ward congratulated the students, saying, “We have a very successful student enterprise programme here in Roscommon. All of our national finalists are excellent ambassadors for the programme and we wish them the very best of luck on the 7th May, and we will all hope to be there to support them.
“What our students are learning from the programme is that with the right supports and encouragement, they can take an idea from the classroom and develop it into a real-life business. The skills they learn along the way, such as business planning, market research, selling and team-work, will help them become more entrepreneurial throughout their future careers,” Ms. Ward concluded.
The winning students will be competing against hundreds of other student entrepreneurs from all over Ireland at the Student Enterprise Programme National Finals, taking place in the Mullingar Park Hotel, on the 7th May.
Since the Programme began in 2003, over 500,000 or half a million students have taken part, learning key skills on how to create, start or grow one’s business.
This year also saw an additional category as part of the programme. The inaugural Student Enterprise Innovators of the Year award, in partnership with Microsoft, was awarded during Local Enterprise Week. Five finalist teams were chosen from Student Enterprise Programme participants across the country and spent the day at the Microsoft Dream Space in Dublin for training, mentoring and a live pitch final.
The winners were Katie Lonergan and Saoirse Shanahan Roche of Access4All from Scoil Mhuire Greenhill, Carrick on Suir, County Tipperary. They created an application designed to help people easily find out whether a shop, café, venue, or public space is accessible before they visit. The app provides clear, honest, and reliable information about accessibility features, including accessible parking, step‑free or ramped entrances, accessible toilets (including hoists and adult changing beds) and also includes user‑added suggestions and reviews
The Student Enterprise Programme also has new range of online resources for 2025 / 2026 at www.StudentEnterprise.ie, which will feature regular blogs and houses a full range of Student Enterprise resources for students and teachers.
Further information around the Student Enterprise Programme is available from www.studententerprise.ie and by searching #studententerprise on social media.
