Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I did not answer the question on the number of people who have been assigned. A number of people have been appointed through Enterprise Ireland in Asia, comprising ten new people across Asia. I can get a specific figure for the Deputy in respect of China.

To my mind, the interdepartmental approach works quite rapidly at present. If one examines again the recommendations made in the Entrepreneurship Forum report, it is evident that the Government is moving rapidly and actually was ahead of some of the recommendations in respect of outcomes, particularly, for example, with regard to the higher level sector where there is a strong move towards ensuring that research works in a way that turns those good ideas into good jobs. The Government has created Knowledge Transfer Ireland and has ensured there are more post-doctoral and PhD programmes. For instance, there are specific arrangements pertaining to the Irish Research Council on having more enterprise-facing PhD programmes. That is one recommendation that already is under way. The point must be made that while the Government acknowledges the recommendations and is working towards meeting them, it will reflect these outcomes through the national policy statement.

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