Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

I assure the Deputy and this House that since assuming office I have incorporated a strong focus on our research and development strengths and incentives in my engagement with Government and business abroad, and with overseas governments and business presences in this country and I will continue to do so.

I engaged with Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn recently when I met with her at the recent Council of Ministers meeting in Budapest. I signalled to her this country's strong intention of seeking to ensure that we can draw down the maximum amount and hit the target of €600 million under the current framework programme 7 and that we would endeavour to surpass that target if we could but, furthermore and more importantly, that we would engage deeply with her on the next framework programme which we feel would ensure that we can continue on the programme for research and development in this country in order to ensure that the research engine keeps going and we can build on that.

I do not know how much time I have.

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