Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

With the permission of the Chair, I will call on my officials, Mr. Tommy Murray and Mr. Pat Kelly, on some of the technical issues. I was not aware of the sunset clause to which Senator Quinn referred, but I will defer to Mr. Murray to answer that specific question. The issues relating to food are in the health silos but we have a prioritisation action group which is a research prioritisation exercise. We have streamlined what must be done. The country needs to engage in 14 key areas of research, and food is one of those areas. Teagasc would be one of the stakeholders in the prioritisation action group because we are trying to set out a new stall that does not put its eye on basic research or blue sky research but moves to an area where we get a closer alignment with industry. It is the collaboration between academia and industry that will drive jobs growth. On the announcement by Teagasc that it was trialling potato crops in certain parts of the country, I would have no problem on the basis that there is an inherent trust in the work that Teagasc does and there is a growing realisation that the exponential increase in global populations deems it that we as a country must engage in new technologies to ensure the people on this planet can feed themselves. That is the high level view but if one is drilling down into a more granular level that should present opportunities for Ireland.

I take Senator Quinn's point on innovations in that regard. I have an open mind but it is within the health remit. That is not to kick the issue to touch. I am always happy to engage further on that agenda if needs be because I firmly believe we must grapple with it at some stage.

Senator Quinn made the point that the State should create the environment for the entrepreneur. The architecture of the action plan for jobs was based on engaging with industry, employers, business groups and so on. The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, issued an invitation to those groups to come up with ideas. The State has a clear role. The Action Plan for Jobs 2012 is being driven directly by the Taoiseach through the Cabinet sub-committee on economic recovery and jobs. In my area of responsibility, research and innovation, there is a very clear sense of driving new messages to academia in terms of trying to foster greater collaboration with industry through the prioritisation action group. We do a great deal of work on the foreign direct investment side of the house but the clear challenge is to try to create more indigenous companies arising from that. There is a greater role for the State to play in facilitating innovation. The State agencies are feeding into the action plan for jobs. The Cabinet sub-committee on economic recovery and jobs has a results-driven agenda.

Deputy Seán Kyne raised the issue of raw materials. We may have a traditional view of them in terms of what can be derived from the earth. For example, at the CRANN Institute in Trinity College Dublin or the Tyndall National Institute, housed near UCC, material science is becoming ever more important as a subject in driving new innovations down to hand-held technology in the use of mobile phones and so on. When distilled to its most basic level, t is how we are driving energy projects, data production and so on in terms of the use of raw materials to drive new technological advances. The partnerships will target non-energy and non-agricultural raw materials, including but not limited to the European Union's list of critical raw materials. It covers metallic industrial and construction materials, as well as other industrial raw materials such as natural rubber and wood. Many of these materials are vital inputs for innovative technologies that offer environmentally friendly clean-tech applications. They are also essential for the manufacture of crucial alloys and products required by modern society. That is the Commission's definition in its own words.

On the issue of open access, we have an intellectual property protocol which was signed off on this year. Academic papers are available to everybody as a source material when individuals are completing doctorates and so on. On the interface between academia and industry, there is a need to set out some rules of engagement because if there is private capital for research, one must ensure there is a protocol in place for how that funding is used. However, where there is publicly funded research, a protocol is in place in terms of the interaction involved. If we were to examine the issue of open access from a global perspective and the European Union was to compete globally with other hegemonic areas of the globe such as the US or Asia, the greater the degree of co-ordination on strategies to enable open access the greater the level of competitiveness that can be driven on a pan-European basis. If Ireland is ahead of the curve on an EU-wide basis, that puts it in the early mover stage which will allow us to benefit from potential financial packages arising from EU programmes. For example, the Government will deal with open data systems as one of the disrupter technologies and see how we can secure a greater degree of co-ordination across Departments and between industry and government in respect of how we can mind more of the information derived in every day life in order that we become a first mover in that space. I hope that deals adequately with the question put by Deputy Seán Kyne.

I will refer the questions on the consumer agenda, the Single Market Act and the progress made on smart regulation to Mr. Murray. On my own agenda, we have set targets in regard to access to finance. The next Horizon 2020 framework programme for which I will have specific responsibility could "potentially" be an €80 billion package, subject to the multiannual financial framework. If it is an €80 billion package, we hope the research prioritisation exercise in which we are engaged in 14 key priority areas that we are going to fund will align with the Horizon 2020 framework programme priorities. Arising from this, the target figure would be upped from 15% to 20% in terms of SME engagement. We need to ensure greater engagement by SMEs. In Ireland I understand work on the foreign direct investment aspect of the puzzle is progressing well in terms of that engagement with the research community, but we need to do more to ensure more indigenous companies thrive. I will refer the overall arching issue of access to finance to Mr. Murray.