Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have no information that the €2.5 billion is being reduced in the MFF envelope but the indications are that, to date, Horizon 2020 has lost €5 billion, so it would come down from €80 billion to €75 billion.

InterTradeIreland has an exciting new board, with a former head of the IDA as chairman. It asserts benefit-to-cost ratios of 16:1 in its work, so that is an indication of the quality of what it is delivering.

I will answer the questions I can and will then come back to the ones I cannot. On the patent timescale, it is to be signed in February and is to be effective by April 2014, so we should be able to sign it here in our presence but it will take longer to be fully up and running, and that date may be optimistic, I am told.

Ireland has the most prevalent seed fund in any European country in terms of state provision of seed funding through the likes of HPSUs and the Competitive Start Funds, so there is good support compared to other countries. Obviously, there is also private venture capital. Competitive Start Funds and HPSUs are both competitive in that one bids for them and the best get through. We also have the New Frontiers programme whereby, even pre-patent, the best entrepreneurs get a chance to get grilled. We have a pretty good design of a supply for people who would set up new businesses based on innovation. Nonetheless, this can always be improved and we are always looking to improve.

This year we introduced a Competitive Start Fund exclusively for women and got a great response, so we will go back to that. We spent €750,000 this year but, clearly, that toe in the water has been very successful. We can get more women into entrepreneurship, where they are vastly under-represented.