Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 55: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation the extent to which he intends to encourage or incentivise the use of technology and innovation as a means of economic recovery; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10125/11]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The use of technology and innovation has a crucial role to play in supporting economic recovery and in driving sustainable employment in the current environment. A wide range of programmes are being delivered by the Enterprise Agencies - IDA Ireland Enterprise Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland, to promote innovation and cost efficiency and give Irish enterprise a competitive edge in the global market place. It is my intention to provide adequate funds so as to ensure that these important supports continue to be available and to assist economic recovery.

The future for Irish companies and the Irish economy will be significantly determined by the ability to take advantage of global opportunities. Because export led growth is identified as the spearhead of economic recovery, the nurturing of high-quality, innovative and internationally competitive Irish companies is clearly fundamental to Ireland's future prosperity. The Irish economy will need to have sharp and adaptable business activity across a range of sectors so as to be in a position to compete effectively in the European and global markets and win export sales in order to create sustainable jobs in Ireland.

The competitive advantage created by the use of technology and innovation will be a key driver in achieving Irish economic recovery. Companies that undertake Research and Development have shown a level of growth in trade and exports during the downturn that demonstrates the value of productive, high calibre research and innovation activity. On an ongoing basis, Irish companies are winning and servicing global sales contracts across a range of modern growth industries and both IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland work with Irish based companies to support this effort. The supports include driving innovation and new product development, in addition to identifying, targeting and delivering on export sales throughout the world; addressing competitiveness issues and helping to raise finance. All these supports are ultimately geared towards driving growth, sustainability, exports and job creation.

Numerous measures have been taken to help companies to achieve internationally high levels of innovation including:

o R&D Funding through Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland.

o Competence Centres established in strategically important sectoral areas like nanotechnology and bioenergy. These €5m centres are designed to allow groups of multinational and indigenous firms to work together with academics to undertake cutting edge, industry led research. Additional funding has been provided to increase the number of Competence Centres to 16 by 2015.

o Supports for new start-up companies with the potential to achieve significant exports - 80 new High Potential Start Ups were established in 2010.

o In 2010, over 49 pieces of commercially relevant technology were transferred from State Funded Research into industry.

o The Enterprise Ireland Technology Transfer System facilitated the creation of 31 spin-out companies in 2010.

o 526 Innovation Vouchers were redeemed in 2010 worth over €2.5m, bringing the total number of Innovation Vouchers redeemed since the scheme opened to over 1,000.

o Collaboration between SFI funded researchers and industry has also increased significantly in recent years largely through the SFI Centres for Science Engineering Technology (CSETs), Strategic Research Clusters (SRCs) and the Principal Investigator (PI) teams. At present SFI is supporting 29 top-class research centres (9 CSETs and 20 SRCs) and SFI funded researchers are collaborating with over 550 industry partners, both multinational and indigenous.

o Both in 2009 and 2010, IDA investments of over €500m were in research, development and innovation, and these investments are central to productivity and new business development in the multi-national sector.

All these initiative being delivered by the enterprise agencies are supporting enterprise to ensure that trade, exports and investment are positioned to retain sustainability and to ensure that emerging opportunities can be maximised as the global economy recovers.

The impact of Ireland's export orientated initiatives is best demonstrated by the growth in export in the face of the current difficult economic climate. Enterprise Ireland estimates that its client companies grew export sales in 2010, recovering in the region of 70% of the losses made in 2009. These companies also reported an expansion in new export orders in every month in 2010 and this trend looks set to continue. It is expected that new export sales from Enterprise Ireland clients in the order of €1 billion in 2010.

There is a vibrant enterprise sector in Ireland that is world-class in its capacity and performance. There is a dynamic export sector, which is underpinned by our rapidly evolving scientific, technological and innovation base. Our competitiveness is based on merging these attributes with a commitment to sustained innovation that is unmatched in the markets in which we compete. Our objective now is to build on the investment and achievement to date, and indeed the Programme for Government outlines a significant set of Innovation and Commercialisation strategies and goals which confirms that this area of productive investment is seen as one of the key drivers of Ireland's economic recovery.