Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will revert to the Deputy on this matter, as I must on the other figures to which he referred, namely, the value of the equity holding in Enterprise Ireland.

We will establish tech centres for medical devices, connected health and pharma-manufacturing. These will map onto the 14 priority research areas. Dairy technology and analytics are two of those areas. I will revert if further questions must be answered.

Turning to Deputy Conaghan, the fundamental question is not of whether it is basic versus applied research. They are on the same continuum. However, we borrow approximately €300 million per week. In this light, it is pertinent that the State and its funders of research would outline a set of priorities to maximise the impact of that research in terms of creating new economic opportunities, namely, creating jobs and high-potential start-ups as well as resourcing the small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, that will sustain the economy.

We look at it from the perspective that perhaps 250,000 jobs were lost between 2008 and 2011. Through this prioritisation programme, and the technology sector centres and prioritisation areas I mentioned, we can begin to leverage more from industry to create those new opportunities. We have State funding and taxpayers' money coming together with industry cash or in-kind contributions to try to ensure we can retain the number of jobs we have within the foreign direct investment, FDI, sector and also that we can grow new opportunities within the domestic or indigenous sector. There is a strong belief that by leveraging that intellectual property and creating more opportunities for scientists to move into the entrepreneurial sphere, the economy can be sustained over a longer period.

One does not come at the expense of the other, however. The research prioritisation exercise is part of the funding puzzle, if one wishes. As well as the HEA bloc grant there are other areas such as the Irish Research Council and other funding agencies that can still fund areas of blue-sky or basic research. There are reasonable amounts of money to sustain the relatively small pockets within the humanities and social sciences, areas, for example, that may feel they are outliers in any new process of prioritisation. The two are not mutually exclusive. Even within the humanities and social sciences, specifically the latter, there are potential opportunities within the prioritisation areas which can be mapped onto health or data analytics to provide new opportunities. It is about taking a more lateral view about how we fund into the research space.

I hope that answers the question adequately.