Mr. John Murphy:

The Deputy asked another question on the percentage of GDP spent on research and development. As the Deputy knows, there are different measures including Government spending, business spending and so on. I do not have the precise figures here but I would be happy to supply them to the committee. Ireland's performance in this regard is at least as good as - and, in fact, better than - the average on a number of headings, despite the impact of the recession. We have worked hard to protect investment in research and innovation because the parts of the Irish economy that have been growing are very much R&D-led, so we want to protect that as far as possible. We have worked intensively, particularly through Science Foundation Ireland, with the Department of Education and Skills, educational institutions and industry to ensure, first, that we get leverage to the maximum amount of private funding to support what the State is doing. Second, it is to ensure that we prioritise well and get the best output from research that has the best chance of supporting sustainable jobs in future. The performance in R&D and the progress we have made in the last ten years have been significant factors in both the IDA and Enterprise Ireland being able to retain, sustain and grow investment.