Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I was going to come to that point in terms of the overall answer. It goes back to the point Deputy Áine Collins was making earlier. Many SMEs that operate in the technology sector are already well versed because they were born out of academic institutions. Radisens Diagnostics in Cork has developed innovations in the area of point-of-care blood testing. This is an example of a company that is gradually scaling up and ramping up to SME level. As it was born within an academic institution, it is predicated on excellent research. It will use the levels that are available through Horizon 2020 to access greater funding.

As the OECD has pointed out, it is a big challenge to get more traditional types of SMEs - the Momma and Poppa intergenerational companies in the more traditional sectors - to engage. I acknowledge it is a challenge. I am confident we can do it. I believe the local enterprise offices can serve as a mechanism to enable us to do so. If one examines this from a regional perspective, one will reflect on the role played by the county enterprise boards. There is a service level agreement with Enterprise Ireland. The chances are that Enterprise Ireland is funding many of the companies that were born out of the research landscape. Enterprise Ireland is conscious that it has a direct mandate and a mission to deal with the SME sector and the indigenous sector. I think we will address that dynamic through that process. I am confident about that.

Most of the greatest innovations we know about have come from investment in defence. Our constitutional arrangement governs where our own defence infrastructure sits relative to the world and relative to the United Nations. Deputy Áine Collins referred to Israel earlier. The greatest innovations that have come from Israel are predicated on that country's massive investment in its defence sector. The same thing applies to the United States of America. We have a clear mandate that dictates what we can and cannot fund. There is no question about that. We are not funding people to make weapons - we are funding innovation in microelectronics. It may be the case that a piece of innovation can be applied to defence infrastructure as a by-product. I will leave it hanging there.