Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I reject Deputy Gilmore's suggestion that there is a delay involved. There is much very good work ongoing, and I do not accept that six months is a long time to give the task force to do that work. Quite apart from the innovation task force that was mentioned at the launch of the smart economy framework, many other initiatives were also mentioned. That framework is a comprehensive strategy covering not just innovation and research and development but all aspects of economic renewal.

There have, in fact, been tax changes to support the smart economy, including an improved research and development tax credit, new tax arrangements for intellectual property and tax incentives for start-up companies and to encourage venture capital companies to locate in Ireland. Indeed, at the time of the publication of the smart economy document, in preparation for the Finance Bill last year, these sorts of changes were incorporated so one would not have had to wait for a report for that to happen.

I have outlined in previous replies what is the purpose of this task force's work at present. New technology initiatives to support a smart economy have also taken place, including the development of a new international content services centre, making Ireland the leading location for energy efficient data centres such as the Microsoft centre I opened during last year, which saw an investment of over €500 million. There are a number of other issues in the whole renewable energy area and, as I said, we now have the green enterprise group, which reported last month with a series of recommendations which will also be helpful.

As the Deputy will be aware, there is a need to support a culture of innovation to help start-up companies and to make sure we have the right processes and policies in place, whether they be fiscal or in regard to intellectual property. A number of changes have already taken place in that area.

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