Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and his team and thank him for all the information he has supplied. I am very interested in the position that Ireland has managed to attain. However, have we identified the competition and what they are doing differently?

I visited Singapore, Panama and New Zealand in comparatively recent years and all three countries seem to have done things differently from us. Are they better able to attract more business on that basis? New Zealand has been successful in food production, and I think we should be capable of a great deal more than we have done in the past. Let me give an example of innovative companies linked to food production. One such company, Nualight, was set up in UCC and another, IdentiGEN, was set up by Trinity College.

To what extent we are able to learn from other countries? Are we able to copy what they do and learn from them? Are they doing things that we should be doing as well?

I believe Springboard offers a great opportunity for those with third level education in areas where their skills are not in demand at present, for example, construction. How can we coax these people to consider working in research and development, which is not dull and boring but exciting and risky, rather than pursuing the normal career paths with few prospects in their field? How do we manage to encourage these graduates to get involved in research and development?