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

I came across difficulties with innovation vouchers in our local university, with which the Minister of State and I are familiar.

There is a huge amount of bureaucracy on both sides in the context of a €5,000 innovation voucher. The bureaucracy for both the companies and the universities is quite cumbersome. It would be good if there was a different way of delivering that. I appreciate that it has to be monitored and that there must be traceability but the bureaucracy is adding to the costs for both parties. It might be worth engaging with some of our universities on this and I would be happy to help in that process. Perhaps we can come up with new delivery methods that would make the process easier.

Is the Minister of State familiar with the term RTO or research technology organisation? Ireland is the only country out of 37 that does not have one. RTO refers to research conducted outside of the universities, often involving multinationals coming together to conduct research. In Ireland, one cannot write off the operating costs against that - it must go through a university.