Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I thank out guests for their interesting presentations. I see there is a proposal to merge SFI with another body. It raises this issue of what the proper balance between applied and relevant research versus blue sky is. Under SFI’s approach, it has targets around relevant industrial partners and spin-outs. Is there a risk that we will see research move away from the more pressing issues, such as digital or green transition, that are immediate and need support, to a more a blue sky approach to research? While one can see the argument for it, I think Ireland’s scale makes it difficult to make impact in that area.

Turning to IBEC’s presentation, I come from the dismal science. I do not know whether the surplus should have been €120 million - in the text it was €12 million. We are probably spending 90% of the annual turnover and the €1.5 billion is non-recurring – the surplus there. While I am keen to see pilots and I welcome the suggestions, it seems that we should be looking to the performance of some of the areas where we have already made substantial investments, such as Skillnet, Springboard, the human capital initiative and apprenticeships. Those are not being exploited to their full. While we should look at new vouchers or the likes, we need to make sure that those mainstream interventions are achieving their full potential before we start setting up new institutions and initiatives.

In that context, leaving aside the craft apprenticeships, what is the present take-up of apprenticeship by companies within IBEC and the Small Firms Association, SFA? The impression I get is that the new apprenticeships are struggling to get employer involvement on the scale that was hoped. Should IBEC be looking at creating some of the management overhead for the participation of these companies? We need to move to a situation where apprenticeships are not about who one knows to a central application. If there were sectoral networks that would recruit centrally and allocate to participating employers, perhaps that would take away some of that overhead that was rightly indicated as falling on small businesses that are very busy. Can we see IBEC and similar sectoral organisations putting greater resources into making a success of Skillnet, Springboard, the human capital initiative and apprenticeship, which were all designed to be flexible, employer-led and employer-responsive?

I suggest a slight tipping of the balance to make what we have work before we think up new ideas.