David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Health if his Department has a Memorandum of Understanding with any other Department to facilitate innovation and job creation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13702/13]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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My Department does not have a Memorandum of Understanding with any other Department to facilitate innovation and job creation. As the Deputy will be aware, the main mission of my Department is to"To improve the health and well-being of people in Ireland in a manner that promotes better health for everyone, fair access, responsive and appropriate care delivery, and high performance". Research and innovation in health can benefit both the economic and societal/health agendas. My Department works closely with the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in relation to the Action Plan for Health Research; the Prioritisation Action Group and the Action Plan for Jobs to ensure synergies between health research and the wider research and innovation agenda.

Through the Health Research Board my Department concentrates on investment in research in population health sciences, health services research, integrating clinical infrastructure and translational research and it is important to recognise that this investment has a dual purpose. On the one hand, these research areas enable the generation of evidence to inform policy, improve clinical practice and create opportunities for improved health care delivery and better health outcomes. At the same time, research in these areas can benefit the wider economic agenda which aims to further develop the health care industry in Ireland for the domestic and potentially international markets. It can do so by strengthening the infrastructure, capability and capacity that will enable, inter alia, the identification, development, validation and potentially the adoption of enterprise outputs within the health system.