James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes. I think it is a useful table to have. I was concerned when I read it. I hope I am reading it incorrectly and the Minister of State can clarify if I am. However, if I am reading it right, there is cause for concern. If we take the five global rankings which are under section 5, from a to e, we have rankings in a number of areas from 2015, 2016 and 2017. If I am reading the table correctly, we have actually gone out in each of these areas and have actually disimproved. Of the five metrics, we start off with university-industry collaboration on research and development, then availability of scientists and engineers, capacity for innovation, quality of scientific research institutions, global competitiveness report and scientific citations per publications. If we take the five criteria, we appear to have gone backwards in three, where we have slipped in terms of global ratings. We have stayed static in one and only advanced in one of the five. I would be delighted to find out I am reading that table wrong. However, from studying it and talking to one or two colleagues to check, it appears that I had it right. In the first one, we were 13th in 2015, 13th in 2016 and 13th in 2017. We stayed static there.