Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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93. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent to which science and innovation featured in the creation of new jobs in both the manufacturing and services sectors in each of the past five years to date; the degree to which EU supportive funding has been drawn down under this heading; the extent to which he expects this to continue for the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30608/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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While statistics on the creation of jobs by science and innovation are not separately available, science, technology and innovation are recognised as critical drivers of Irish companies’ competitive advantage. It is this ability to compete and differentiate themselves in global markets which enables Irish firms, including those in the manufacturing and service sectors, to achieve exports, thus increasing their turnover and their ability to create new jobs.

Innovation is not the sole preserve of large high-tech firms with research laboratories, it is simply the application of knowledge in order to achieve impacts more economically, more efficiently and more effectively. An innovative idea may come from the most low-tech of sources to the most high-concept solutions, arrived at via scientific research. As such, the vast majority of manufacturing and services companies in the past five years would have featured strong elements of science, technology and innovation in identifying and responding to market needs, ultimately leading to the creation of new jobs.

The Action Plan for Jobs emphasises the significance of innovation and the use of technology as critical drivers of job creation in Ireland while seeking to maximise their impact in the coming years. Substantial ongoing investment has been made in Ireland’s national innovation ecosystem and in the supports that build the innovative capability in Irish enterprise. 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 the Irish agency responsible for helping Irish companies and third level researchers to participate in Horizon 2020 which has a budget of nearly €80 billion. In the past 7 years Ireland’s National Support Network, which is led by Enterprise Ireland, has been responsible for helping Irish companies and academics secure over €600 million from Horizon 2020’s predecessor (Framework Programme 7). Of this, roughly 60% of funding went to the Higher Education sector and 40% to industry. 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.

Horizon 2020 offers even more valuable opportunities to companies based in Ireland to participate in high-quality research collaborations with their European counterparts. An innovative feature of Horizon 2020 is that it contains a specific initiative - the SME Instrument – designed to assist companies in surmounting financial obstacles thereby increasing their potential for participation in the Programme. The Government has set an ambitious but achievable target of €1.25 billion in funding from Horizon 2020 over the seven year lifetime of the Programme. I am confident that, with the support of the National Support Network and the Government Strategy we have put in place, we will reach this target - over double the return from the previous (FP7) Programme.