Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 124: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of jobs funded or part-funded by her for research and development in each of the past five years; the breakdown of the jobs created into the relevant sectors; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28180/09]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Government is very much aware that supporting enterprise, innovation and research and development is of critical importance to our economy. The way forward is to stay competitive and maintain an edge over our competition by developing new products and processes. In this regard, funding is provided to the Enterprise Development agencies as part of the Government's Estimates process. While I may give general policy guidelines to the agencies from time to time, and indeed, they are very much aware of the vital role that research and development plays, the application of the funding provided is a day to day operational matter for the agencies and I do not have any role in such matters. I can say that support levels would be tied to an assessment of strategic objectives, in conjunction with commercial and technical assessments rather than to job numbers. In any event, information on job numbers would be provided by companies on a confidential basis.