Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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17. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the degree to which he expects innovation, science and technology to play a part in the jobs market in the next two years; the extent to which he expects funding to be made available in this regard from the relevant EU Commission; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12171/14]

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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The importance of investment in innovation, science and technology in employment creation is well recognised by Government. As a small open economy, a central tenet of Ireland’s economic strategy is the essential requirement to export goods and services. In order for our companies to achieve success on the global market they must be able to innovate at internationally high levels in order to differentiate themselves.

My Department and its agencies are focused on the development and support of internationally traded manufacturing and services firms in Ireland. They have a clear and steady focus on the potential and opportunities that exist and can be created by prioritising innovation and technology as a key driver of success. Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland provide a range of innovation and science/ technology development programmes that deliver financial, technical and experiential support to help companies become more innovative and encourage competitiveness. In turn, this will help them grow their sales and exports in order to create a climate in which sustainable employment will be maintained and expanded.

The Action Plan for Jobs emphasises the importance of Innovation and the use of technology as core drivers of job creation in Ireland’s key sectors during 2014 and into the coming years. In tandem with this approach, it is recognised that substantial international expertise and important sources of non-exchequer funding are available via EU research initiatives. Enterprise Ireland is responsible for coordinating Ireland’s national support network for helping Irish companies and third level researchers to participate in Horizon 2020. This is the new EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation covering the period 2014 – 2020, with a budget of nearly €80 Billion.

Horizon 2020 offers valuable opportunities to companies based in Ireland to participate in high-quality research collaborations. The Government has set an ambitious but achievable target of €1.25 Billion in funding from this programme. Ireland’s drawdown from Framework Programme 7, Horizon 2020’s predecessor, was almost €600 Million. This funding has provided a considerable increase in the innovative capability of Irish industry and academics over and above existing exchequer investments in this area.

It is most encouraging to see that the 2014 European Commission’s Innovation Union Scoreboard, published last week, shows Ireland increasing its position from tenth to ninth in the overall ranking of 28 EU Member States. Moreover, it is particularly encouraging to see that Ireland is the overall leader in the indicator which measures the economic effects of innovation. This indicator captures the economic success of innovation in employment in knowledge-intensive activities and the contribution of medium and high-tech product exports to the trade balance. It also captures exports of knowledge-intensive services, sales due to innovation activities and license and patent revenues from selling technologies abroad. I am confident that, against that background, Ireland will continue to maximize the financial benefits from EU Framework Programmes and will meet the target we have set ourselves for Horizon 2020.