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

I welcome the Minister of State and his officials. I concur with Deputy Calleary's comments on our recent visit to Europe and the compliments paid to the Minister of State's staff on the great work that is being done. I refer to the technology centres, which are currently linked to universities. This is the only country in the OECD which does that. In other countries, the technology centres are partnered with industry. The IDA and Enterprise Ireland can draw down money individual without being attached to a university. Why can we not do that if we are spending all this money on innovation, which is hugely important to economic recovery and on which we all agree.

We spoke about Israel which has a more open way of doing research and innovation. In terms of its funding models, it is very open to state funding and diaspora funding. We talk about the 70 million Irish diaspora around the world but Israel has nailed down funding very well with the Jewish community. It is something about which we are now talking.

There is no reference to second level education and the possibility of entrepreneurship, which is a direct link to research and innovation, as a subject that people could study and which could be part of the new curriculum. That would certainly focus the mind on entrepreneurship.

There is a huge issue with lack of funding in regard to third level education which is directly related to entrepreneurship. If a young person has a PhD or otherwise, it is very hard to get funding to stay in that space and to try to develop a business unlike in other jurisdictions. Could we put some funding into a pilot scheme in that area?

The Minister of State will be familiar with Dr. O'Shea, a fellow Corkonian, who is head of business development and running Washington University which has a budget of $500 million. Of that sum, $84 million goes directly to driving research, innovation and entrepreneurship. If one has an idea that gets vetted, one will get $50,000 to bring the concept to the next stage. One will then get another $100,000 to work on the project before it becomes commercialised. We are placing the emphasis on industry, in particular the multinationals, which is very welcome but we should look at developing some homegrown talent and make it a little easier for them to pursue their ideas.