Dr. Graham Love:

I think so, in some cases. One of the larger universities would be bringing in grants of €50 million, €60 million or €70 million from sources like Science Foundation Ireland, Horizon 2020, which is the European project, my old organisation, the Health Research Board, Enterprise Ireland etc. That is one of the areas we have been trying to develop over the past 15 years, not just the Higher Education Authority, HEA, but Ireland in general, to push our institutions and our system to be better and do better at research and development. I understand Ireland invests about 1.6% or 1.7% of our GDP in research and development, and about one third of that is publicly invested. Two thirds come from the private sector. That is a good ratio by international standards, and it relates to the earlier item about intellectual property. The exploitation, and I use that word in the best possible way, of intellectual property is a central objective of our investment in research and development for the State and for the individuals concerned, both in terms of private incentive but also generating jobs etc. That is in addition to excellent scientific output citations in the international scientific press and linkages with industry, which was another part of the Deputy's question. Good companies either start or come to places that have excellent researchers with particular nous in terms of particular technologies, some of which was discussed earlier.