Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies and Senators for their kind remarks on the Presidency. I concur that our Department is not seen as a shining light relative to others in respect of what we have delivered. I add to the comments of the Minister by saying that many of our officials had to up tent and pegs to Brussels for six months, leaving their families and significant others behind, to chair working groups and participate in hundreds of meetings. They had to chair trilogues with a gargantuan effort. Perhaps it is easy for us to walk into a chamber of Ministers and other colleagues and just take the plaudits, so I also officially record my gratitude to the officials for the work they have done.

Horizon 2020 is a win for Ireland as we successfully concluded a package which is worth €70 billion, and within that there is potential for Ireland to surpass the framework programme target of €600 million. I do not see why we cannot reach a target of €1 billion of a drawdown during the lifetime of the next programme. It was fortuitous that the co-decision procedure allowed us to conclude those negotiations, which I chaired. They were concluded with Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn and the rapporteurs within the European Parliament. The research part of the Competitiveness Council will deal with the follow-on from those negotiations, dealing with issues related to the next EU framework for research and innovation, Horizon 2020, the innovation union and the European research area.

During our Presidency, Ireland successfully negotiated a political agreement on the proposals for the EU’s €70 billion research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020. Research and innovation are key drivers of growth and job creation. The strategic approach to research and innovation contained in Horizon 2020 will develop, diffuse and drive research across the European Union.

The Competitiveness Council will receive presentations from the European Commission on proposals for an investment package of more than €22 billion under Horizon 2020 over the next seven years in innovation for sectors that deliver high quality jobs. Most of the investment will go to five public private partnerships in innovative medicines, aeronautics, bio-based industries, fuel cells and hydrogen, as well as electronics. These research partnerships will boost the competitiveness of EU industry in sectors that already provide more than 4 million jobs and also find solutions to major challenges for society that are not being solved quickly enough by the market alone, such as reducing carbon emissions or providing the next generation of antibiotics. The package also includes four public public partnerships, so-called, between the European Commission and EU member states on new treatments against poverty related diseases, measurement technologies for industrial competitiveness, support for high tech small and medium enterprises and solutions for the elderly and disabled to live safely in their homes.

The council will also receive presentations from the European Commission on its communication on the State of the Innovation Union 2012 - Accelerating Change and on Measuring Innovation Output in Europe: Towards a New Indicator, and on progress on the European research area. The communication on the State of the Innovation Union 2012 notes significant progress towards setting the policy framework for an innovation union in various areas accelerating the development and uptake of innovations to address societal challenges. The business environment in Europe will become more innovation-friendly with Single Market measures such as the unitary patent, faster standard-setting, modernised EU procurement rules and a European passport for venture capital funds. The communication also notes progress on EU financial instruments for SMEs through Horizon 2020 and the programme for the competitiveness of enterprises and SMEs, COSME.

The communication states that the global position of Europe is still relatively strong. The EU is one of the world’s best performers when it comes to producing high quality science and innovative products. Since 2008, the EU has improved its innovation performance and it closed almost half of the innovation gap with the US and Japan. The EU is also keeping its strong innovation lead over Brazil, India, Russia and China, although the last is catching up. In addition, South Korea has almost tripled its innovation lead over the EU since 2008 and joined the US as an innovation leader.

Also, while public research and development spending in the EU grew throughout the crisis as governments strived to keep up their research and development investments and incentivise businesses to do likewise, recent data point to a potential reversal of this trend. In 2011, for the first time since the beginning of the crisis, the total public research and development budget decreased slightly. As growth disparities between some European regions are increasing, there is an even stronger need to implement the innovation union swiftly, particularly in the areas crucial to innovation, such as higher education, innovation-based entrepreneurship and demand-side measures.

A new indicator of innovation output has been developed at the request of the European Council to benchmark national innovation policies and monitor the EU's performance against its main trading partners. The new indicator classifies Ireland in the highest category of top performers. Ireland's performance under the new Indicator of Innovation output is highly significant as it measures the extent to which ideas from innovative sectors are able to reach the market, providing better jobs and making Europe more competitive. This is a very positive indication of improvement in Ireland's competitiveness in key areas of the economy. The top performers in the EU owe their ranking to doing well on several or all of the following factors: an economy with a high share of knowledge-intensive sectors, fast-growing innovative firms, high levels of patenting, and competitive exports.

The novelty of the new indicator is that it focuses on innovation output. Sweden, Germany,Ireland and Luxembourg are the EU member states getting the most out of innovation, according to the new indicator. The indicator was developed using state-of-the-art statistical analyses, and international quality standards by EUROSTAT, the OECD and the IMF were taken as a reference when constructing the indicator. This is testament from an authoritative source that we are on the right track to recovery and our innovation performance is playing a major role.

The Council will also receive an update on progress on establishing the European Research Area, ERA. Its objective is to open up and connect EU research systems, thereby leading to a significant improvement in Europe's research performance to promote growth and job creation. Completion of the European Research Area is urgently needed to avoid costly overlaps and unnecessary duplication of activities. It entails building a genuine single market for knowledge, research and innovation, enabling researchers, research institutions and businesses to circulate, compete and co-operate across borders. Completing the ERA will bring efficiency, quality and impact gains and new opportunities for all member states.

Ireland fully supports the development of the ERA. We believe that success in implementing ERA initiatives should increase Europe's attractiveness as a place for doing research, with direct benefits for researchers and downstream benefits for the enterprise sector and European competitiveness generally. The ERA progress report states that the science, technology and innovation system in Ireland is evolving towards a strong prioritisation of research areas, focused on innovation for growth and jobs. Well aligned with the ERA priority to promote effective national research systems, peer-reviewed competitive funding continues to prevail in Ireland.

Finally, the Council will receive an update on ITER, the international thermonuclear experimental reactor. This project is a partnership between the EU Atomic Energy Community, EURATOM, and six other parties: China, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the USA. The aim is to build and operate an experimental reactor demonstrating the technical feasibility of viable fusion energy. This offers the potential of almost limitless energy supply with no CO₂emissions. The project has a 35-year timeframe to build, operate and then deactivate the reactor. As a member of EURATOM, Ireland is a participant in this project. Ireland's general position on ITER is that firm cost controls must be built into the project. Fusion is potentially a more sustainable, safe and secure source of energy than nuclear fission. However, fusion energy will not be delivered in the short term. Fusion research must continue to be balanced by continued dedicated funding and research to improve the safety of existing fission reactors as well as for the safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste. The issue at hand is a proposal to change the funding basis for ITER. It is proposed to fund ITER from the EU's general budget rather than the research and training programmes. This requires an amendment of decision 2007/198. As a result it is proposed that a specific allocation to the 2014-20 undertaking be set at €2.915 billion. This proposal does not have any direct budgetary implications for Ireland. It helps to reinforce Ireland's desired objective of ensuring cost controls in this project. Therefore, Ireland can support this proposal.