John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Donnelly, but does he have an hour? The Deputy has posed very important questions. It is important to note that part of our research priority does include artificial intelligence, augmented virtual reality and health and well-being, smart and sustainable food production and processing. The Deputy asked a very complicated question about science and there is always the argument about basic research and applied research. As a matter of fact, I think both of them interlink. If one looks at the block grant in education, most of it goes to the humanities and social science. There is substantial money involved. There is a division between applied and basic science. It is important to note that 70% of all Science Foundation Ireland's budget goes to basic research. I will define it, if desired. Some €122 million of the funding of Enterprise Ireland goes to applied research. The reason for that is that we must ensure that all investments we make in science because we are a small economy can help our economy to grow. We do not have the facility, as we would like to have, to invest in all science. We must invest in areas in which we think we are good at. We have been investing in projects which has put us in the top ten in nanotechnology. Agri-science is significant to our exports in agriculture, and we apply our knowledge of agri-science. For example we have farmers using satellite imaging at present. Some of that technology was developed in Ireland, and that has the benefit of improving our economy. It is important that we can get a basic result when we spend our money in science. The basic result that we require is that it helps to develop and grow our economy. Deputy Donnelly is correct that if we could, we would. However, we invest in smart and sustainable food production and processing.

The Deputy makes a very good point in investing in health and well-being. Job creation is investing in our health and well-being and the most recent data available from the annual business survey, ABSEI, in 2016 show that nearly 99,000 people are employed in research and development activity agency client firms whereas almost 240,000 were estimated to be employed in research and development activity. If my calculations are correct, that is a difference of between 52% and 55%. The most recent annual report from Science Foundation Ireland estimates that, through its research, we support 31,000 jobs. In that sense, the investment in health and well-being, energy and climate action, sustainability advance and smart manufacturing shows that we are investing to a degree in the public good.

Again, we must be careful where we invest our money in science and where we invest it in basic research and applied research so that it can benefit our economy. All of us would like to have significant funding that we could do what we wanted. I have spoke to Deputy Lawless on this issue on a number of occasions where we would be able to invest in individual scientists in all sorts of technology and to deliver an outcome that is not of benefit to the economy. Some other countries can do that but we are not in that position so we have to take our budget in research and development and innovation and direct it to where it will be profitable for the economy. That is why we target basic research and applied research. That is why we do our best to collaborate with multinational companies, universities, institutes of technology and other Departments, such as the Department of Education and Skills.

The Deputy is correct. If all things were equal, in a budget where we could dip into and say that we can have what we like, I can tell the Deputy, I would be investing much more in applied science, which is what the Deputy referred to, the humanities, health and well-being and so on.

However, we are limited by our budget. We have to work with bodies such as Enterprise Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland - in a small economy that is coming from a bad position - to ensure that all the investments we make in science benefit job creation and growth in the economy.

I am not sure if that answers the Deputy's question. I agree that it is a generic answer but it gets to the root of where the Deputy is coming from regarding our investment in research and development.