Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A key there is the Horizon 2020 agenda. The current research framework in Europe has a budget of €80 billion which we can draw down and target. The research community, the ecosystem, in Ireland has developed considerably in recent years and we are in a position to target about €1.25 billion of that. Quite a lot of that money will be targeted through the services industry but also through the manufacturing sector. The best way we can win that money is through collaboration with our higher education institutes along with industry, coming together through research centres and through SFI to drive that agenda, putting teams of people together to make proposals that will win in Europe.

In the first year of Horizon 2020 we have been very successful. Ireland is leading the way and we are punching above our weight when it comes to winning funding from that budget and I think we will do well in that regard. However, the Deputy is right. The services sector is key for employment. For example, among Irish-owned enterprises, employment in services increased by 5,188 between over the past three years. In IDA Ireland enterprises, employment in services increased by 9,730.

The Deputy asked about whether they were part-time or full-time jobs. They are full-time jobs; they are real jobs. One can look at the tax coming in from those jobs so they are not pretend jobs, part-time jobs or intern jobs. The majority are actually full-time new jobs. When we say 70,000, that figure is above the net losses as well. It is a great improvement.

3 o’clock

They are not the figures though.

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