Social Enterprise in Ireland : The Camara Education Experience

The concept “social enterprise”, despite being widespread, is still of difficult interpretation. What is certain is that social enterprises bring great benefits to different communities or groups of disadvantaged people by managing economic activities. This paper analyzes the situation of social enterprises in Ireland, being Ireland an example of a country in which social enterprises still do not have a nationally accepted and agreed definition. The first part of this work gives an up-to-date representation of the Irish social enterprise sector, while in the second part Camara Education is presented as a specific case of successful Irish social enterprise. The Camara Education model will be presented, together with the results obtained and the beneficial impact on society it generates