Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 440: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the amount of funding committed to the RTDI initiative under the current National Development Plan; if he will provide a breakdown in relation to the amounts allocated individually to the Border Midlands Western and south eastern regions; the amount spent on this initiative to date; the amount spent in each region; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38651/06]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The following table sets out the position in relation to funding allocations for RTDI under the National Development Plan 2000-2006 and the amounts spent to date in both the Border, Midlands and Western and the Southern and Eastern regions. The RTDI Priority is one of four priority areas to receive funding under the Productive Sector Operational Programme. This funding is comprised of both exchequer and EU structural funds and to date spend stands at over €1.7 billion.

Spending under the priority takes place across a range of measures in the education, industry, agriculture, food industry, marine, forestry and environmental sectors. There have been a number of significant achievements during the lifetime of the Operational Programme. These include

the establishment of Science Foundation Ireland on a statutory basis,

€987 million spent on Industry Research and Development,

€134 million spent on world class equipment under the Programme for Research in Third level Institutions,

the establishment of seven Centres for Science, Engineering & Technology Research, and

the build and fit-out of the Celtic Explorer marine research vessel, which averages over 300 operational days at sea per annum.

When the current NDP was drawn up in 1999, very ambitious estimates for expenditure were included for RTDI spending, particularly in the BMW region. Unfortunately, spending under this priority has been well below forecasts. There have been a number of contributory factors to this outcome, including:

the Programme experienced a slow start to spend, with some delay in securing State Aid clearance from the EU Commission and spend under some measures being included in the old Industry Programme. Spend under the RTDI priority however, continues to strengthen, and has increased year-on-year over the course of the programme.

The impact of the slowdown in economic activity in 2000-02, and the outbreak of foot and mouth disease, meant that businesses and the agriculture sector were not in a position to put forward sufficient investment plans in the early years to avail of funding. As R+D projects have unusually long lead-in times between inception and funding requests, expenditure is now only being realised in the latter part of the programme.

In the case of the BMW, the absorption capacity of the region has had a strong impact on the level of spend. NUI Galway has performed extremely well in obtaining competitive Research and Development funding, while the Institutes of Technology are being encouraged to improve their research capacity have a more limited research capacity. Likewise, the industrial base in the BMW (more small, indigenous companies and less high value-added industry) means that R&D activity by industry in the region is also relatively limited compared to the S&E.

Emerging difficulties in drawing down EU funds involved were identified some time back and my Department has been working to ameliorate the problem. Steps taken have included initiatives designed to encourage the take up of available funding, revisions to the Programme Complements to allow larger projects to be supported and the transfer of funding from RTDI to other areas. It should be noted that funds transferred to other Operational Programmes and priorities have been retained within the BMW region, thus ensuring no dilution of the regional aid to the area.