David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps I should have raised this issue with the Minister, Deputy Bruton, but maybe the Minister of State can address it. There was very little discussion on the section dealing with a more competitive and efficient defence and security sector. I know it is not an area that we focus on to any large extent in this State but many people would be concerned about the potential for an easing up of the arms trade. There are a lot of ethical issues which must be brought to the table in those discussions. While we are not big players in that sector, I would imagine that we will be represented at those discussions. If one looks at recent conflicts, like the one raging in Syria, one can trace back the origin of the weapons being used. Many people in this State would have very genuine ethical concerns that they would like to see addressed at the forthcoming meeting.

On the issue of innovation, it is great to engage with a Minister of State who is clearly in command of his brief and the issues involved. I mean that sincerely and believe a lot of good work is being done in this area. I am a big believer in increasing the focus at second level on innovation and creativity and have spoken to the Minister of State on that issue previously. I heard what the Minister of State said regarding the fact that the State is building in SME targets into Horizon 2020 and is trying to get SMEs to engage more with the research sector and with academia. He spoke about the innovation vouchers and the fact that the system is working well in some areas but that there are some difficulties with it. While I do not want to upset Deputy Michael Conaghan, the OECD report on competitiveness and innovation examined the SME sector and found that innovative activities are largely confined to multinational firms while domestic, indigenous SMEs are less innovative and productive than their foreign-owned counterparts. The report also noted that we have a below-average level of patenting of intellectual property in this State. In that context, what new ideas will come from this Council meeting and what new ideas will come from the Department to address the concerns expressed in the OECD report?

On the issue of new innovation models, I wish to deal with a practical example. We spoke before about the TSSG in Waterford IT, which is a cutting-edge research and development institute that does exactly what the Minister of State outlined, namely encouraging links between innovators in the private sector with researchers and developers. We are talking about co-location of the private sector with research and development. It is an excellent centre which makes very good use of the innovation vouchers. We should be looking at best practice, analysing how it works and working out how that fits in with the Government's policy of developing new technological universities. That will obviously open up new opportunities for funding. The problem, even with the institutes that are doing well, is that they are still operating with one hand tied behind their backs. They have to fight for funding for research and development because they are not on a par with the universities. They must tender for funding and so forth. There are opportunities there in terms of supporting some of the sectors which are already doing well but which would do better if they had access to more research and development funding.

On the issue of public private partnerships and innovation, there is obviously a place for them but there is a concern about the fact that often times the public sector takes on a disproportionate risk in such partnerships but does not always receive the appropriate benefit at the other end. Does the Minister of State have concerns in that regard and how will the EU model benefit the public sector? If we are going to take on a share of the risks then, especially in the context of intellectual property licence profits, there must be a dividend to the State.