Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and the opportunity to debate Innovation 2020. I wish to echo Senator Quinn's words about the Minister of State's enthusiasm for and commitment to this, which is greatly appreciated. I also wish to acknowledge that Innovation 2020, Ireland's new strategy for research and development in science and technology, represents an enormous achievement, a coming together and culmination of a great deal of consultation. The Minister of State noted the significant progress we have made in innovation, for example, the fact we host nine out of the top ten global ICT companies, nine out of the top ten global pharmaceutical companies and 17 out of the top 25 global medical devices companies. These are significant achievements for a country which started from a low base in terms of investment in research and third level education.

I want to address a number of points relevant to the development of innovation and research, in particular at third level. However, as we consider the results of the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in the RDS, I would like to acknowledge the importance of first and second levels in the context of innovation and research in this area, particularly in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the STEM subjects. As a parent of children in primary school, I have a particular interest in this. It seems to me we are not doing enough at primary level to foster the right sort of enthusiasm among primary school children. Others have mentioned it already but it is vital enthusiasm is fostered in children at primary level. For example, in the history area, there is huge innovation going on around the 2016 centenary celebrations and we see innovative and imaginative projects that are capturing children's imagination. However, we do not see the same sort of innovation in regard to the development of science education at primary level. The position is better at secondary level and the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition plays a significant part in that. However, we need to do more at primary level.

I mention this in light of the reports of the high dropout rates in STEM subjects at third level highlighted by the HEA this week. Some of the figures have been contested but we undoubtedly need to ensure higher retention rates in STEM subjects. This has been a long-standing concern in the IT and university sectors. On the issue of the STEM subjects at third level, Senator White has spoken about the need for greater recognition for gender balance in this area. It is a concern that we continue to see a disproportionately lower number of girls entering engineering, computer science and maths based courses. I commend the women in science and engineering research, WISER, initiative or project in Trinity College, which has done significant work in trying to foster more enthusiasm and a higher take-up rate among girls in these subjects. Part of this involves generating knowledge about female role models in science research.

While we are focusing on science and STEM research, as a humanities researcher I would like to make a pitch to ensure we do not overly focus on the STEM subjects at the expense of humanities research. Ireland has a great deal of strength in this area also. The Minister has spoken about Horizon 2020 and EU funding but we must also ensure that our researchers are facilitated and supported in applying for EU funding in the humanities and social sciences as well as in the STEM area on which we are focusing much of our resources.

To reflect a view held among third level, in particular among university researchers, we need to ensure there is a balance between research which is linked to industry or applied research and research which is more in the line of frontier research or "blue sky thinking" ideas based research. We must recognise that a great deal of time is often needed to develop ideas from their very abstract stage to the applied stage. William Campbell, whom we claim as our new Irish Nobel prize winner in science, made this point very eloquently. We need to ensure we have that balance.

I welcome the target to grow our total research and development budget to 2.5% of GNP by 2020. However, I would plead on behalf of the university system, which has been underfunded in this regard. There has been a significant cut in budgets over the past decade despite an increase in student numbers and this has contributed to a fall in rankings which has a knock-on effect in terms of attracting not only students, but researchers and academics. I welcome the focus on the need to increase the number of research personnel to 40,000 in enterprise and to increase the number of enrolments in MA and PhD programmes to 2,250 by 2020. This is welcome but we need to ensure adequate supports are put in place at third level to provide for the increased focus on PhD research.

I welcome the successor to the PRTLI and the renewed investment generally in research infrastructure. I also welcome the challenge-centric approach, provided it does not impact negatively on the research opportunities for principal investigators or individual researchers which currently may be too small a percentage of the overall funding portfolio.

I am conscious that we are time-limited in this debate but I wish to welcome the launch by the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills of the Pathways to Work programme, which sets out 86 actions to increase the numbers in work to 2.2 million by 2020. This is very much linked with Innovation 2020 in terms of seeking to ensure we have increased numbers at work.This sort of target is ambitious but, as I said earlier, it is achievable given that under this Government, unemployment has dropped from more than 15% to a current rate of 8.8%. It is still too high. Clearly, the actions and commitments made in Innovation 2020 will have a large part to play in reducing unemployment further and ensuring we have high quality, skilled jobs based on investment in research and development, which is so critical to growing our economy and society.