Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 148: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the measures his Department has taken to increase research and development spending to 3% of gross domestic product, GDP, as recommended under the EU framework programme for research and development; and if he is satisfied that the current ratio of gross research and development spending to overall economic activity in 2004 was estimated by his Department to be only 1.5% of gross national product, GNP, and that investment has increased a mere 0.18% in three years. [25500/05]

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 153: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the measures he intends to take to remedy Ireland's weakness in the research and development sector as identified by the National Competitiveness Council's annual competitiveness report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25039/05]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 198: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his views in respect of the low uptake of and investment in research and development by firms; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25393/05]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 148, 153 and 198 together.

The Government is fully conscious of the importance of research and development capacity to our international economic competitiveness and the ongoing well-being of the economy. To this end, significant investment of €2.5 billion has already been committed by this Administration in the context of the current national development plan. Reflecting the effectiveness of this investment, business expenditure on research and development rose from €917 million in 2001 to €1.076 billion in 2003 and real annual average growth in gross expenditure on research and development, GERD, for Ireland was 4.8% for 2003 to 2005.

This rate of research and development growth in Ireland exemplifies the Government's vision for Ireland to become a knowledge economy internationally renowned for the excellence of its research, with leadership in the areas of life sciences, medical technologies, software and information technologies, and at the forefront of generating and using new knowledge for economic and social progress with an innovation-driven culture.

The Government's ambitious decision to build a strong base of expertise in science and technology to drive the development of strategic research and development investment is already reaping rewards as reflected in the growth of business spend on research and development and collaborative ventures between universities and industry under, for example, Science Foundation Ireland's centres for science, engineering and technology, CSETs, initiative. However, we are fully aware that more needs to be done in terms of our competitive position in Europe and internationally. We welcome the focus that has been brought to bear on this key area in recent years by such bodies as the National Competitiveness Council, NCC.

To help achieve our vision for research and development and to ensure a coherent approach across a range of Departments, the Government approved a new co-ordination and governance system for science, technology and innovation last year, including the establishment of a dedicated Cabinet sub-committee, which I chair. This decision facilitates a genuine, whole-of-Government approach to the cross-cutting research development and innovation agenda. Earlier this year the Cabinet sub-committee mandated a high level cross-departmental group of officials to prepare an action-oriented strategy for science, technology and innovation for the period 2006 to 2013.

The strategy will outline for Government the steps necessary to enable us to achieve the Lisbon and Barcelona goals. Working in partnership with our agencies, schools, third level institutions and the enterprise sector, it will aid Ireland to realise its potential as a knowledge economy and attain a position of prominence in research and development which will maintain competitiveness and jobs in coming years.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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How does the Minister intend to change the situation whereby in 2003, of the €1 billion invested in applied research, only €32 million came from the State? This places Ireland 21st out of 30 countries in the OECD in terms of state funding for research and development. Does he have any response to the finding in the summer quarterly report from the ESRI that research in this State is carried out primarily by companies whose parent company is based in another state and that there is no contact with State agencies or universities in respect of the majority of applied research and development?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I disagree fundamentally with the Deputy. Many indigenous companies engage in the research and development agenda.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The findings in the ESRI report indicate a different situation.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We have a greater number of researchers per 1,000 people than the European average. The bottom line is that since the establishment of the PRTLI programme during my time as Minister for Education and Science and the establishment of Science Foundation Ireland under the aegis of the Tánaiste during her tenure in my Department, there has been a dramatic transformation of the research landscape for which the Government deserves credit. We realise we must transform that agenda again and are preparing an action implementation strategy for research which will involve significant changes both in terms of prioritisation, targeting and envelopes over a six-year period to bring us to even higher levels of research and development.

The good news is that much of the foreign direct investment we have recently announced has included strong research and development components. Many of our indigenous companies, particularly those in the food sector such as Glanbia and Dairygold, invest heavily in research and development centres which provides new jobs for this emerging economy.