Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

MS Teams can be a nuisance. Turning to investment in research and development, the White Paper tells us innovation is the best way to generate "sustainable long-term" productivity growth. Who is going to argue with that? I agree with that of course. I think we all would. Analysis of European and global indicators, however, shows that Ireland is drifting in the wrong direction on innovation scorecards on international competitiveness in the area of research and development. We have moved in the right direction on the European innovation scorecard. We are classed as a strong innovator, which is good. We are not yet, however, an innovation leader, unlike countries such as Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden. Indeed, the European scorecard indicates that our performance is at 108.9% of the EU average, but our lead is becoming smaller. We are doing well but perhaps slipping back. That is probably the best way to describe it. On the global innovation index, we have drifted from 12th to 19th. On the international Institute for Management Development world competitiveness indicator, we have drifted from seventh to 13th.

Significant attention was devoted in the White Paper to the need to improve these scores and to make us an innovation leader. The area of research and development does not necessarily fall within the remit of the Department, but last year its budget for research and development was €255,075. Can I get an outline of what needs to be done to ensure we break into that top echelon and become leaders in this area? We are going in the wrong direction, albeit we are not in a bad place. We should, however, be moving forward and not backwards. Comments from the witnesses on this topic would be very welcome.