Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the total number of jobs lost or created in the area of innovation and technology in each of the past seven years to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3672/13]

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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The Forfás Annual Employment Survey reports on job gains and losses in companies that are supported by Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and Shannon Development. The survey does not measure jobs lost and created in the categories of innovation and technology but rather in specific sectoral categories. There are traditional sectoral categories which might not necessarily be regarded as innovative or technological but which would nonetheless be likely to have people employed in innovative and technological roles. Similarly, there are sectors generally regarded as innovative and technological but will have a number of jobs that are not innovative or technological in themselves, e.g. sales, administration. As innovation and technology are aspects of employment across most sectors it is not possible, therefore, to disaggregate the information as sought by the Deputy.

The importance of innovation and the use of technology are recognised as core enablers of job creation. Ireland is a small open economy which needs to have the export of goods and services at the heart of its economic strategy and in order for our companies to achieve success on the global market they must be innovative in order to differentiate themselves.

There are some 130,000 people directly employed in 1,004 IDA client companies and in 2011, the value of the foreign direct investment approvals achieved by the IDA that were research, development and innovation (RDI) based amounted to €700m. Indeed, some 70% of business expenditure on research and development is accounted for by IDA client companies. Additionally, around 50% of IDA client company announcements in 2012 had links to Science Foundation Ireland.

The introduction of the annual Action Plan for Jobs process supports employment creation by the enterprise sector, based on innovation, entrepreneurship and exporting and recognises that delivering improvements in competitiveness and prioritising innovation are key drivers that will lead to jobs growth.