Mr. David Hegarty:

I thank the Deputy for her question. As she said, we all agree this must be a core part of our enterprise direction and economic policy in future. The Deputy mentioned some of the metrics. We are doing pretty well according to some indicators, while we are falling somewhat behind on others. Essentially, the White Paper states what we need to in this regard and the Government agreed a separate strategy on this area late last year. This is Impact 2030 - Ireland's Research and Innovation Strategy, which was developed by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. In this area, we are essentially saying that we need to get on and implement this strategy. This includes targets around increasing the share of metrics such as gross national product, GNP, gross domestic product, GDP, gross expenditure on research and development, GERD, and business enterprise expenditure on research and development, BERD. In some areas this is a matter of increased public resourcing, but equally there is a need for firms to see the importance of this agenda and invest more themselves.

The Deputy mentioned a figure of €255,000. I do not think that is correct, but we will check the figures. We run a number of significant research and development programmes in our Department, including the digital technology and innovation fund, DTIF. Enterprise Ireland also has several research and development programmes. Off the top of my head, in the context of the budget for those endeavours, the DTIF itself is worth €500 million over several years. It is a multiannual programme.