Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)

For years we have heard Governments talk about developing a knowledge economy, but at the same time moneys have been ripped from the education area. There have been two difficulties in the research and technology sector during the years. The first concerns the amount of money being invested and the priority given to the sector, while the second concerns the ability to monetise research results, create feasible businesses from them and sell them abroad. I welcome some of the initiatives mentioned by the Minister of State and look forward to seeing some of them being pursued. I have a major issue with the technological research that takes place in that there is no understanding of what the market thinks. It is said the market has all of the answers. What input will industry and the market have in developing the technology and research initiatives mentioned? In most enterprise initiatives there is some level of benchmarking to establish what amount of money will be returned on each euro invested. What return does the Minister of State expect to receive on each euro invested under this initiative?

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