Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

Enterprise Ireland and I have the substantive commitment to research and development. I am working with it to enhance and grow the number of companies engaged in meaningful research and development. Part of Enterprise Ireland's new strategic vision involves a defined objective in terms of the number of companies. In essence, it wants to double to more than 1,000 the number involved in significant research and development, which means spending more than €100,000. I am also working with Government colleagues to develop a medium-term strategic position on further ramping up research and development and investment in the country.

This Government, more than any in the history of the State, has created a new platform of research and development expenditure through the programme for research in third level institutions, PRTLI, and the SFI. We now wish to move beyond that to prepare ourselves and ensure that we are competitive enough to withstand the pressures of globalisation and so on. There is a great deal of action on the Enterprise Ireland front on research and development, and the kinds of technology-based companies now emerging as having high potential growth are quite significant and cutting it with the rest globally.

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