Mr. Kevin Sherry:

Just to expand on the research and development issue, we set ourselves a target of increasing by 50% the spend of companies on research and development. We have also repositioned our own offering to make it as simple as possible for companies to engage and to try to leverage to the maximum extent the investment that is being made in basic and applied research so that companies can access technology and investment in research that is being undertaken in the institutes of technology and universities. In that regard, one of the supports we provide is the innovation vouchers scheme where vouchers are, effectively, cashable with the institutes of technology to leverage the skills that are available. That is a widely used scheme and is part of our step-by-step approach to encouraging companies to go down that route. It is particularly aimed at those early-stage SMEs that do not have the same level of resources as larger companies.

We are heavily engaged with the institutes of technology on the specific needs of companies and are working closely with them in the area of skills. A good example of that is in Limerick where we are working with the colleges on the availability of engineering skills. There is close collaboration on the available flow of skills. The collaboration between employers in the region is highly connected with the colleges there so that suitable graduates who are readily employable emerge from those colleges. It is a key agenda for us.