Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 53: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the Government's strategic implementation plan for investment in scientific research; the budget and the distribution of this budget for each year; the way in which funding will be allocated; if funding will be prioritised for aiding research in the institutes of technology; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23503/06]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Government launched its whole of Government Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation 2006-13 on Sunday morning last and copies of the Strategy have been laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. The Strategy sets out a vision for Ireland as "internationally renowned for the excellence of our research by 2013, to the forefront in generating and using new knowledge for economic and social progress, within an innovation driven culture", and then clearly identifies the challenges ahead and the practical steps which we need to take to deliver on this vision. It is all about enabling Ireland to develop world class people and enterprises with the drive and resources to succeed.

The Strategy clearly identifies how we should develop a world class research system. This will involve us doubling the number of PhDs, addressing the capture, protection and commercialisation of knowledge generated from publicly funded and collaborative research and providing supports and encouragement to industry to dramatically grow business expenditure on R&D to €2.5bn. The Strategy tackles the need to promote science as a subject and a career choice among our young people and the need to give teachers the skills to do this. It covers the whole range of research-performing sectors and focuses on the potential in areas like health, agri-food and forestry, energy, marine and environment. It builds on the potential synergies between sectors and underlines the importance to Ireland of international collaboration and enhanced cooperation on STI issues on the island of Ireland as a whole. In so doing, the Strategy clearly demonstrates that the whole island of Ireland is an excellent place to do research.

The Strategy sets clear targets which will continue to be monitored and fine-tuned during its lifetime by a small number of interconnected high-level groups, including Technology Ireland under the direction of the Cabinet Committee on STI which I chair. This ongoing monitoring will ensure that the important whole of Government approach adopted in preparation is maintained throughout the period of delivery of the Strategy. The timeline of the Strategy is an eight-year one, to 2013 and resources of €192 million up to 2008 have been provided by Government to enable work on delivering the Strategy to commence with immediate effect.

The implementation of the Strategy, which will form a central plank of the forthcoming NDP, will involve Government expenditure of approximately €2.7bn up to 2008. Over €2bn will be spent on maintaining the existing levels of service while almost half a billion euro has already been provided in the form of Capital Envelope commitments by Government Departments in the current budgetary cycle. Of the additional sums available for the years 2007/2008 (€66m in 2007, €126m in 2008) funding will be made available for public sector research, enterprise support, infrastructural support and programmatic measures.

Taking account of the allocations in the existing Capital Envelopes and existing levels of service spending projected to 2013, the net additional resources required to implement the Strategy in full have been costed at €1.88 bn over the period to 2013. As the Strategy indicates decisions on the detailed funding arrangements for the remainder of the Strategy beyond 2008 will be made by Government in the context of the new National Development Plan to be published later this year.

The implementation mechanisms for delivery are set out in detail in the Strategy itself, but, essentially funding under the Strategy will be allocated using a variety of existing means including EI, IDA, SFI, PRTLI and the Research Councils operating in a coordinated manner, with oversight by a Higher Education Research Group and Technology Ireland and reporting to the Interdepartmental Committee on STI, which in turn will report to the Cabinet Committee on STI. This will ensure a complementarity of approach between research funding bodies and focus our research performance in areas of economic and social priority.

Within this process, the Institutes of Technology will have a very important and valuable role to play, supporting the development of R&D performance in regional enterprise and building on collaborative efforts with enterprise. The Strategy envisages that the IoTs will develop a shared agenda that will serve to strengthen their research and commercialisation performance.