Mr. John Murphy:

I will deal with the issue of gender balance in the Department. We meet the criteria at the level of assistant secretary, principal officer and assistant principal and in fact at every other grade, but not at Secretary General level, as I am more than 40% male. The 40% representation of women is met, but that is not the composition of the delegation today.

On the targets of the different percentages of GDP, there are a number of different targets for research and development. The goal we set for the Europe 2020 strategy is to improve the conditions for research and development with the aim of raising combined public and private investment levels to 2.5% of GNP, which is about 2% of GDP by 2020. Our national reform programme of 2012 indicates that underlying assumption remains valid and that progress is on track. The latest available data shows that the research intensity rate for 2011 is estimated at 2.2% of GNP.

The update on our national reform programme of 2012 indicates that underlying assumptions remain valid and that progress is on track. The latest available data show that the research intensity rate for 2011 is estimated at 2.2% of GNP, approximately 1.8% of GDP. Achievement of our research and development target under Europe 2020 will require continuing government funding and supportive measures, as indicated in the national reform programme, to support the research and development base.

We would have set an outside target of the order of €600 million out of FP7 - the seventh EU framework programme for research and technological development - the existing programme that expires at the end of this year and would already have achieved over €500 of that. The latest figure I have is from earlier this year and I am very confident we will achieve the target by the end of this year.