Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the Chamber and commend her on this very worthy Bill. Having served on an enterprise board for 15 years, having dealt with many small companies and coming from a small business background, I am very aware that it is very important to incentivise and encourage development, especially in the research and development sector. I served on the board of Limerick Institute of Technology for 11 years. I know the Minister visited it recently and met some people who were starting up their own businesses. People are always coming up with novel ideas. I like the fact that the Bill states that inventions must be novel, non-obvious and useful, three very important aspects. There are so many people with so many good ideas that it is very important to have some kind of incentive to encourage them to go forward with that. If they were paying the higher rate of tax, it might be a disincentive to go forward with development or research relating to their products. In respect of patents, one feature of the Bill I like is that it must be produced in Ireland. This is very important in terms of development and employment.

A number of Senators have raised the question of who will certify or keep an eye on things. The Bill mentions several times that there can be unannounced audits and that there will be continuous audits, which is very important in making sure people are complying with the criteria laid out in the Bill. It involves encouraging indigenous industry to engage in greater levels of research and development. We are the first country in the world with this type of development box to comply with the OECD's new standards, for which I commend the Minister. I commend the Bill to the House.