Áine Collins (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all the witnesses here today and thank them for such detailed information. I congratulate them all on the great work they did during the Irish Presidency. It was outstanding.

If the figure for Horizon 2020 and research and development is 1.8% of GDP, how much in monetary terms is the Department spending per year and how is it planned to get that up to 3% over the next few years? We all agree that is of huge importance. Much of the research and development investment for small companies is coming through the innovation vouchers from Enterprise Ireland. According to some of the feedback I get that is quite bureaucratic for both the universities and the businesses involved. Could we look at this in another way, whereby we would give a payment to universities which would have to reach a certain target? That might be more appropriate than for a small business to try to work through the bureaucracy and the university.

I missed, or did not understand exactly, the point about venture capital. How is that going to operate in real life, for example, how will we increase the level of venture capital for somebody running a business? There was much talk earlier about female entrepreneurship. There is significant activity in this area, and has been for the past few years. It may not yet be quantified in reports but Enterprise Ireland has a very dedicated team working for female entrepreneurship and finds it quite challenging. Its staff are on the ground every month trying to get activity going but women view entrepreneurship and risk very differently from men. That seems to be a challenge for Enterprise Ireland. The Cork Institute of Technology runs the PINC programme which has been very successful.