Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The competitiveness agenda is very important in terms of job creation and of ensuring we have an economy that responds to the need to increase exports. We export goods and services and we must ensure that those goods are world class in terms of quality and technology. In many instances, they represent solutions to global problems, be they related to energy, climate, businesses, agriculture or food. Some very exciting companies have emerged over the past decade with the support of Enterprise Ireland and the pro-business environment in Ireland that has facilitated the growth of a significant number of new types of SMEs in the food, technology, life science and digital areas and in internationally traded services. We must continue to pin our hopes on these areas, which is the reason we have put such significant investment into the enterprise Estimates for the next three to four years. It is also the reason we are not just maintaining the level of investment in research and development area but are making modest increases in it over the next number of years. We want to ensure that the critical mass of research capacity we have built up can be deployed to ensure greater commercialisation of research and new products and services that will bring about new jobs and greater exports.

Notwithstanding all of the challenges we face, it is important to acknowledge that over the past ten years we have transformed the research landscape in this country. In 1997 when I became Minister for Education, there was no research budget. We have transformed the situation, particularly in terms of the campuses of our universities, institutes of technology and specialist research centres. We have also transformed it in terms of the quality of personnel, both home grown and those from overseas. The evidence in terms of how the IDA's portfolio of inward investment has changed bears this out. As the Taoiseach mentioned this morning, some 50% of the projects run by the IDA this year are research-based projects. Prior to this we had seen growth to approximately 40% of new projects coming in being based on research. These projects are not just involved in research for its own sake, but underpin the high end manufacturing presence we continue to have in Ireland in many sectors, but more specifically in the life sciences and ICT. These remain strong sectors for our economy and we must continue to focus on them as a basis for growth. As a result of the development of the export sector, domestic demand will return in time to sustainable levels.

Finally, we need a change in politics and in our political system and it is important we do not return to "politics as usual".

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