Dr. Ciarán Seoighe:

When the Senator refers to "hardware", effectively she is speaking about the silicon. It is the chips and the silicon we are using in the transistors. This technology is also moving incredibly quickly. I saw recently that IBM can now build chips on the space in which someone's fingernail grows in two seconds. If we think about how slowly our fingernails grow, they can put a chip on two seconds worth of growth. The statistics on this are significant. Where we are playing a role on this in particular in Ireland is in the Tyndall National Institute in Cork. It is doing pilot lines, chip designs and packaging. It is a big field all over the world. We are looking at areas where we can be very good and investing in them. It is an area of investment. A national strategy on semiconductors in Ireland has just been launched. It is an area that is important to us and as we have some of the large players based in the country, it is something that will continue to be important and we will fund the research as best we can.