Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

A review of patents is currently under way. The Deputy will be aware of the technology transfer strengthening initiative. A review of patents under that initiative is currently under way. We have created an infrastructure which includes a central technology transfer officer and Enterprise Ireland supported technology transfer officers, TTOs, in the individual institutions, all of whom are tasked with pulling out that intellectual property and creating from it the economic opportunities arising for economic or societal benefit. Let us take, for example, business investments in research and development. During periods of economic downturn, it is less likely that companies will engage in research and development because of the cost element. In other words, during periods of retrenchment companies will engage in a battening down of the hatches. There is a direct correlation between that and the reduction in the number of patents. This is being addressed through the national research prioritisation exercise.

Let us imagine we had all of the research funders in one room going through action plans for each of the priority areas. Working with Forfás, we have set out metrics in terms of how the institutions should perform, in particular those funded through Science Foundation Ireland, SFI. I anticipate a behavioural change in this regard from the institutions in the context of what the State expects from them in terms of job creation. The usual measures within academia are the numbers of publications and citations. We are driving new metrics in relation to job, patent and licence numbers, etc. There is a clear expectation among the research community in terms of what Government expects of it.

A review of the patents is, as I said, under way through the technology transfer strengthening initiative. The dip in economic activity-----