Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 74: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent to which industry here remains alert to the need to upgrade using modern technology; if particular emphasis is placed on such meeds by the statutory agencies; the success of such efforts over the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27678/12]

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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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. Enterprise Ireland in particular, employs a range of supports to encourage and facilitate Irish companies to adapt to, purchase and use new technologies. Amongst these supports are:

· E-Business Initiative – under which companies are supported in making effective use of computer-based services including internet, customer relationship management, finance and general business administration. Since 2005, almost 400 such supports have been offered.

· Over 250 projects have been initiated under the Lean Start or Lean Plus programmes which provide companies with the Lean tools and techniques to help companies to address competitiveness issues within their businesses by building their capability to identify problems and improve operations.

· A range of grant schemes have been offered particularly to support capital equipment investment for improved productivity, competitiveness and growth, including: Productivity Improvement Fund; Job Expansion Fund; Growth Fund; Company Expansions; Dairy Process Investment Initiative; Beef & Sheepmeat Fund; Scaling including R&D; HPSU Package

In addition, Enterprise Ireland leverages private sector investment in companies through its various Seed & Venture Capital supports which provide valuable investment capital to companies requiring major capital for growth.

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 and capitalise on innovation have shown a level of growth in trade and exports during recent years that demonstrates the value of technology, high calibre research and innovation activity. A wide range of programmes are being delivered by the Enterprise Agencies - Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland, to promote innovation and cost efficiency and give Irish enterprise a competitive edge in the global market place.

Among the numerous measures that have been taken to help companies to achieve internationally high levels of innovation are:

o R&D Funding through Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland

o Technology Centres have been established in strategically important sectoral areas like nanotechnology, bioenergy, IT Innovation, manufacturing technology, energy efficiency and food. These centres are designed to allow groups of multinational and indigenous firms to work together with academics to undertake cutting edge, industry led research. The intention is to establish 16 centres in total by 2013

o The Innovation Voucher Scheme is facilitating and encouraging enterprises, particularly small enterprises, to engage in research or development by availing of the services available in research institutions. 453 Innovation Vouchers were redeemed in 2011. The total number of Innovation Vouchers redeemed since the scheme opened in 2007 is over 1,800.

o In 2011, 52 companies were given support under the Innovation Partnership programme which provided funding of €9.9m to Higher Education Institutes to collaborate with companies.

o The recently announced New Frontiers Programme aims to raise the number of business start-ups and to increase the pipeline of HPSUs and other sustainable businesses. This new programme forms part of one of the action points set out in the Government's recently announced Action Plan for Jobs. The programme is currently being phased in across the country. Ten institutes have commenced/completed Phase 1 of the Programme with over 300 participants taking part in this 6 - 8 week introductory course. The first interviews for Phase 2 began in mid-May and four institutes have completed the recruitment process with 48 places offered on the 6 month courses taking place in their incubation centres.

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 28 top-class research centres (9 CSETs and 19 SRCs) and SFI funded researchers are involved in 1,305 industry collaborations with 583 distinct industry partners, both multinational and indigenous.

o Both in 2010 and 2011, IDA investments of over €500m and €700m respectively were in research, development and innovation, and these investments are central to productivity and new business development in the multinational sector.

The initiatives being delivered by the enterprise agencies are supporting enterprise and are ultimately geared towards driving growth, sustainability, exports and job creation. Our objective is to continue to use research and innovation to build competitive advantage and to build on the strengths that have emerged from the investment to date in Science Technology and Innovation.