Written answers
Tuesday, 30 January 2018
Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
Economic Competitiveness
Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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328. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation her views on each recommendation (details supplied) as contained in the latest National Competitiveness Council report, Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2017; her plans to implement the policy recommendations which she has statutory remit for; and the timeframe for implementation. [4045/18]
Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Details of measures being taken to address each of the recommendations contained in the National Competitiveness Council report which fall under the remit of my Department are set out below.
Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|
| Clarify the eligibility criteria for the Brexit Working Capital Scheme and engage with industry stakeholders accordingly to optimally develop the Scheme. | The Brexit Loan Scheme will be available to eligible Irish businesses with up to 499 employees. To be eligible, businesses must be viable enterprises that have been demonstrably exposed to current or future negative impacts resulting from the Brexit vote. This will include businesses whose supply chain will be disrupted by Brexit or which are linked to businesses directly impacted. They must also provide a business plan demonstrating that they plan to innovate, change, or adapt in response to Brexit. The Scheme will be open to both State Agency clients and businesses that do not have any relationship with State Agencies. Sole traders may also apply. The Brexit Loan Scheme will be launched at the end of March 2018 and will run for two years. Extensive engagement with businesses was conducted as part of the development of the Scheme, both by the Departments of Business Enterprise & Innovation and Agriculture, Food & the Marine and by agencies including Enterprise Ireland and Bord Bia |
| Develop a long-term Business Development Loan Scheme to support SMEs affected by Brexit. | Officials in my Department are exploring the development of a longer-term Development Loan Scheme. While the Brexit Loan Scheme aims to provide relatively short-term credit to businesses coping with working capital challenges, a longer-term Business Development Loan Scheme would assist firms in long-term investing for a post-Brexit environment. It is intended that this Scheme would also be developed in cooperation with the EIB group. Engagement with key stakeholders is currently taking place. |
| Continue to optimise the employment permits system by making further use of ICT in employment permits processes and review the effectiveness of online permits and the Trusted Partners initiative. | A new Employment Permit Online System (EPOS) was introduced in September 2016. EPOS provides a great user experience, easy and intuitive to use, inbuilt form validation, multi country input to applications online, upload of supporting documentation and secure online fee payments. Since the introduction, over 95% of total applications are coming in online. The Department plans to extend the online system to include the remaining prescribed forms such as review requests. |
| Continue to set an objective that Ireland’s medium term productivity growth as part of the renewed Enterprise 2025 Strategy. Reflecting the composition of Irish productivity growth, output per hour should also be measured relative to GNI*. Separate complementary targets should continue to be set and monitored at sectoral level. | Enterprise 2025 (EP 2025) set out a range of cross sectoral initiatives across Government designed to support enterprise sector productivity. A review of EP 2025 is being undertaken by the Department in the context of global changes that are likely to have an immediate impact on Ireland’s enterprise development, specifically Brexit and potential relevant policy changes under the new US administration. The emphasis on productivity performance will be continued and strengthened in the revised EP 2025. This will also continue to be a core part of the NCC’s annual competitiveness benchmarking work. |
| Ensure the work of the NCC has a greater emphasis on productivity analysis. Examine the Council’s Terms of Reference, reflect the European Council recommendation and ensure the NCC is adequately resourced to fulfil its mandate. The NCC should engage with the European Commission, OECD and Productivity and Competitiveness Boards to ensure its work in this area is in accordance with emerging trends and international best practice. | Monitoring of productivity performance at macro and sectoral level is conducted annually by the National Competitiveness Council and reported in the Competitiveness Scorecard Report. Policy recommendations to enhance Ireland’s productivity performance are set out in the Council’s Competitiveness Challenge report. In 2017, the Council published a report Benchmarking Ireland’s Productivity Performance relative to other countries and the performance of individual sectors within Ireland. The report also considered specific areas of policy focus which have the potential to broaden and deepen Irish productivity growth in the medium term. Ireland joined the OECD Global Forum on Productivity in 2016. Secretariat to the Council participate in the Forum. |
| Streamline the supports available for universities/industry collaborations. Increase awareness of and take-up of funding schemes promoting academia/industry collaborations, especially amongst Irish SMEs with a focus on firms that have not previously engaged in such collaboration. | In 2017 over 1060 collaborative projects were supported between industry and academia by Enterprise Ireland. Take-up and awareness of the supports continues at pace with a 40% increase in the numbers of these projects in the last 5 years. Specific supports such as the Innovation Voucher scheme specifically target companies who are new to collaboration and innovation and the Enterprise Ireland Technology Centres and Technology Gateways are charged with continually increasing the number of SMEs they engage in collaborative RDI with every year. |
| Continue to maximise the drawdown from Horizon 2020. In relation to Horizon 2020 funded research assess the potential opportunities and threats arising from the future disengagement of the UK from the EU. | D/BEI continues to oversee the national strategy for engagement with H2020 through the High Level Group. D/BEI will continue to monitor Ireland/ UK participation and potential any opportunities and threats arising from the future disengagement as the work programme for 2018 – 2020 is rolled out The Horizon 2020 support network, based in Enterprise Ireland, will continue to drive a strong and continuously increasing drawdown from this important source of non-exchequer funding. To date, Ireland has won €475 million in competitive funding from the Horizon 2020 programme. More than 1,100 applications have been successful for 536 higher education researchers and 430 companies, placing Ireland’s success rate above the EU average. Science Foundation Ireland is undertaking considerable work in this area and has put in place specific targets with SFI Research Centres to maximise the drawdown from H2020 (data available is required) SFI has focused resources on planning for Brexit. UK will continue to be a power house of research excellence and all efforts must be made to continue the IE/UK collaborative relationships. SFI already has a significant number of partnerships with highly-respected international funding agencies. These include joint programmes with Wellcome (UK), the Royal Society (UK), the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Department for the Economy NI. These partnerships enable Irish researchers to access prestigious UK funding schemes and to undertake joint projects with their counterparts in the UK. In addition, they associate Ireland with important international researchers and research funders, thus demonstrating to global stakeholders, industry and the research community alike, the quality of Irish research. The agency is in negotiations with representatives within UK policy and academia to advance further partnerships to implement joint PhD, Joint Professorship recruitment programmes and bilateral research funding programmes. Horizon 2020 is the current EU framework programme for research and innovation. A hard Brexit is likely to have a much more significant impact on FP9 than it will on Horizon 2020. The overall FP budget may be reduced with the UK leaving. The monetary reduction for this is unclear as it will depend on negotiation outcomes. Until the buy-in from the UK to the EU following Brexit is clarified it is very difficult to clearly map the potential impact of the removal of EU policy and legislation. It is clear that Ireland must continue to collaborate closely with researchers and research centres of scientific excellence and strategic relevance in the UK to advance our research endeavours. Science Foundation Ireland requested an additional €6.5M capital budget in 2018 specifically to advance BREXIT related programme activity (this requested budget was part of a bigger budgetary ask of €53M). This BREXIT-related budget was not allocated to the agency which is limiting our ability to fully manage opportunities and risks associated with BREXIT. |
| Based on the findings of the review of RD&I supports prepare an implementation plan to intensify business R&D activity. | The Enterprise Ireland in-company RDI support for indigenous companies has been substantially improved and optimised in 2018. Changes include increased support for IP protection, improved flexibility to deal with specific client needs, quicker approval and turnaround times, more flexible financing options. An Agile Innovation Fund was also launched to support companies to respond more quickly to market opportunities and challenges, including those posed by Brexit. Offering fast-track approval and a streamlined online application process, companies can access up to 50% to support product, process or service development projects with a total cost of up to €300,000. This substantial redesign to Enterprise Ireland’s in-company RDI support has also been accompanied by a significant communications campaign to highlight the benefits of RDI and the support Enterprise Ireland can provide. |
| Undertake an assessment from an enterprise perspective of the National Mitigation Plan to evaluate green economy opportunities as well as potential negative impacts on the enterprise sector, particularly potential costs implications for enterprise. | DBEI will undertake a study to evaluate the potential cost implications for enterprise arising from the various proposals in the National Mitigation Plan. This study will be completed before year end. DBEI will also explore what opportunities exist for enterprise in Ireland as we transition to a low carbon, circular economy. |
| Prioritise the recommendations and actions arising from the Mid-term Review of the National Policy Statement on Entrepreneurship. | The Government’s National Policy Statement on Entrepreneurship in Ireland was published in 2014 as a comprehensive national Strategy for entrepreneurship over 5 years. We have reached the mid-point of the lifespan of the NPSE and the Department of Business has prepared a mid-term review and intends to publish it shortly. As a core part of the midterm review stakeholder’s engagement meetings were organised under three pillars: education; state bodies; and entrepreneurs with related representative bodies. These meetings were held between May and June 2017. Additional feedback was gathered from the participants of the Forum of the female entrepreneurship programme “Going for Growth” and the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Alumni Board. In addition to stakeholder consultation the mid-term review includes National and International Performance Indicators, an analysis of a Mapping of the Support Environment carried out by DBEI, a summary of key actions, and data on the creation of new businesses in Ireland. The monitoring of the 96 actions contained within the NPSE remains a priority and will continue throughout 2018. It is intended that a final review will be conducted on conclusion of the period covered by the NPSE in 2020 |
| To ensure the impact of any new legislation or regulation does not create a disproportionate burden on SME’s, develop and implement the SME test. | The advancement of the SME Test was included in the 2017 APJ as Action 107. The Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation developed the SME Test during 2017. The SME Tests includes a range of measures designed to ensure new regulations and legislation do not place a disproportionate burden on smaller businesses. Private sector consultation was carried out in 2017 through the Advisory Group for Small Business and through a wider public consultation that was open to all relevant stakeholders. The SME Test will be piloted within DBEI on two appropriate pieces of legislation in 2018 prior to a wider roll out across the various Government Departments. |
| Supplement the Innovation 2020 expenditure target with a measure of R&D intensity relative to GNI | DBEI is tracking R&D expenditure relative to modified GNI (GNI*) and reported on this metric to Cabinet in September 2017. |
| Consider extending coverage of the Annual Business Survey of Economic Impact to benchmark the prevalence of management practices in Irish-owned and foreign-owned enterprise. | DBEI agrees that improved collection of data on management practices would be hugely beneficial. Additional ABSEI questions on management training spend would be in keeping with the existing quantitative questions and could be relatively easily incorporated. Consideration is being given to the best way of capturing data on management practices and will require discussions with a number of different bodies. |
| To drive greater economic impact from public investment in research and development progress proposals for a Research and Technology Office model to complement/add value to the work of Research and Technology Centres. | In 2017 the Irish Manufacturing Research Technology Centre received an investment of €15 million under an Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland programme to create 40 hi-tech jobs. This centre is now a member of EARTO (the European Association of Research Technology Organisations). This Department, working with IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland is progressing proposals for the establishment of an Advanced Manufacturing Centre based on the RTO model. Deliverables of an Advanced Manufacturing Centre will include training, technology acceleration and adoption and service delivery. |
| Examine enterprise RDI support programmes where necessary and appropriate to ensure their comprehensiveness and appropriateness to indigenous enterprise particularly SMEs. | The Enterprise Ireland in-company RDI support for indigenous companies has been substantially improved and optimised in 2018. Changes include increased support for IP protection, improved flexibility to deal with specific client needs, quicker approval and turnaround times, more flexible financing options. An Agile Innovation Fund was also launched to support companies to respond more quickly to market opportunities and challenges, including those posed by Brexit. Offering fast-track approval and a streamlined online application process, companies can access up to 50% to support product, process or service development projects with a total cost of up to €300,000. This substantial redesign to Enterprise Ireland’s in-company RDI support has also been accompanied by a significant communications campaign to highlight the benefits of RDI and the support Enterprise Ireland can provide. |
| Strengthen and intensify linkages between indigenous and multinational enterprises. This includes active engagement by the Enterprise Agencies to assist suitable indigenous firms to optimise supply chain business opportunities. Review the impact of the Global Sourcing Initiative. | IDA Ireland has a continued strong relationship with the Global Sourcing Team in Enterprise Ireland (EI). Each of the operations departments works directly with the team to make introductions for Enterprise Ireland to our clients. EI’s Global Sourcing Team work to make sure the right Irish companies are introduced to IDA’s international MNC clients with a view to winning new contracts and the opportunity to partner over time with the MNC around new product/technology development. The Global Sourcing Team in EI also organise an annual Ireland Trade Mission led by the Minister. This involves strong collaboration between EI and IDA to make this happen particularly at a regional level. Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland are actively working to strengthen and intensify linkages between indigenous and multinational enterprises. Based on the Global Sourcing initiative, approximately 60 new contracts have been secured by Irish companies since 2013 totalling at least €20 million. As part of this, in 2017, both agencies held a two day Trade Mission to Ireland. At this event 470 one-to-one meetings were held between 167 Enterprise Ireland clients and 116 IDA Ireland companies. These meetings are invaluable to Irish companies seeking credible access to procurement teams in global MNCs. This was the biggest, most ambitious mission to date and will provide MNCs with direct access to potential suppliers, as well as raising awareness of the innovative capabilities of Irish SMEs across a range of sectors. A review of the Global Sourcing Initiative will be carried out in due course |
| Recommend best international practice to enhance the claim process in Ireland and benchmark personal injury awards internationally. | The Personal Injuries Commission produced its first report in December 2017 which was approved by Government and published on the 7th December 2017. The Report makes a number of recommendations including the adoption of a standardised and internationally recognised approach to the diagnosis, treatment and report of soft tissue injuries by practitioners who are appropriately competent and trained. The standardised approach should be along the lines of the South Australian guidelines for best practice management of acute and chronic Whiplash Associated Disorder (WAD). The Personal Injuries Commission has commenced the next phase of its work to benchmark compensation awards in Ireland against other jurisdictions. |
| The relevant section of the Report for the Digital Economy and Digital Single Market Unit is pp 136-141. The following action, despite not being assigned to DBEI in the template, is one we are leading on as our Unit is responsible for the co-ordination of the Interdepartmental Committee Recommendation: Coordinate a whole-of-Government response to delivering the Digital Single Market as an enabler towards advancing Ireland as a leading global digital economy. Increase Government interaction and consultation with firms at the forefront of the digital agenda. | The Committee’s agenda is geared towards advancing Ireland as a leading global digital economy and increasing digital competitiveness. Minister Breen, as Chair of the Committee, will meet with business representative groups on relevant issues arising from the Committee meetings. The first of these meetings will take place on 14th February 2018 |
Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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329. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation her views on a matter (details supplied) raised in the National Competitiveness Council report, Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2017 on research, development and innovation. [4046/18]
John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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A critical international measure of innovative activity is ‘R&D intensity’ (R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP).Global Innovation leaders all have high intensity rates such as Finland (3.18%), Denmark (2.98%) and Israel (4.29%). The UK has a rate of 1.68% of GDP. Ireland, meanwhile, has a rate of 1.51% of GDP. As a result, it is very clear that companies in Ireland are not spending enough on innovation to ensure growth and insulation from future economic shocks.
Just over two thirds (68%) of Enterprise Ireland clients who responded to the Annual Business Review (ABR) Survey are RDI (Research, Development and Innovation) performing clients. However, this percentage needs to increase, and clients need to invest more in this area.As such, Enterprise Ireland continues to aggressively support Research Development and Innovation in all client companies.
One of the key pillars of Enterprise Ireland’s Strategy 2017-2020 is to ‘Place Innovation at Centre Stage’. This will help increase the level of innovation among client companies, increase connections between clients and the international innovation ecosystem and encourage more client company investment in R&D to help reach a target of €1.25 billion per annum by 2020.
For Irish businesses to remain sustainable and competitive, they need to ensure that their products and processes are leading edge. Enterprise Ireland works with companies to help them to innovate new products, processes and services by supporting them to do in-company RDI, helping them to access international sources of funding and expertise and to collaborate with each other and the higher education system.
EI’s own analysis shows that companies that are RDI active are higher performing in terms of employment, export sales and are more sustainable through recessionary and other economic shocks such as Brexit.
EI’s actions to drive innovation within its client base include:
1. Helping companies increase their investment in RDI (target is an increase of 50% by 2020) with the introduction of a new innovation toolkit which will include:
- the redefining of EI’s RDI offer;
- aligning EI innovation supports to in-house company needs which will include redeveloping financial offers and advocacy;
- continued support for process and business/organization innovation;
- driving healthcare innovation by enabling enhanced access to companies in Ireland through the National Healthcare Innovation Hub;
- support to provide multinational sub supply and partnering opportunities for SMEs;
- increase focus on assisting young Irish disruptive technology companies to access the significant EU Horizon 2020 SME instrument;
- support to enable Irish companies to access funding support and contracts from Horizon 2020 and the European Space Agency;
- extension of the campus incubation facilities;
- access key talent - EI will help with finding, hiring, growing and reaching impactful innovative people, particularly through the Marie Curie Co-Fund.
2. Helping companies develop their internal innovation capabilities and capacities through training (i.e. Innovation 4 Growth programme and Excel at Innovation programme) and assistance with new key hires and access to innovation expertise and capabilities and abroad.
3. Enabling companies to tap into external sources of innovation – locally through EI Technology Centres, EI Technology Gateways and the wider Irish Research System, as well as internationally. The Knowledge Transfer Ireland (KTI) office in EI plays an important role in this regard as a connector and will enable a smoother interaction between industry and academia. KTIs new online ‘Find RDI Funding’ tool enables companies find easier access to fund their R&D projects.Through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), Ireland's national pre-procurement programme, EI facilitates and co-funds innovative solutions to specific public sector challenges and needs. SBIR Ireland’s aim is to drive innovation across all sections of the Irish Public Sector.
These enhanced activities, while serving to increase the diversity and scalability of clients will also serve to contribute to a key target in the Government’s Innovation 2020 Strategy, namely the doubling of business expenditure on R&D by 2020.
EI's innovation supports enable companies to develop new market opportunities and maximise their business performance.They provide a range of financial and non-financial supports to companies to drive innovative capability across the enterprise base. To ensure companies throughout Ireland are aware of, and can avail of, Enterprise Ireland innovation supports, the agency has:
- Launched a national media campaign, ‘Global Ambition’ , to drive awareness of the benefits of innovations via the use of real stories from real companies;
- Redesigned its R&D Fund. The new Agile Innovation Fund is more streamlined and responsive for companies, especially smaller companies;
- The agency’s new company-led diagnostics client engagement model permits Enterprise Ireland’s Development Advisors to direct companies to the most suitable innovation supports based on their business need, stage of development and global ambition.
Enterprise Ireland will continue to support companies with supports for innovation, competitiveness, management and financial capability to become more resilient in international markets and to compete with other economies as a location for investment.
In regard to innovation performance within FDI companies, today half of IDA Ireland clients invest in R&D and employ over 15,000 people directly in R&D. The challenge remains to increase the number of MNCs engaged in R&D activity in Ireland so that their activities move them up the value chain. At the end of the third year of IDA’s Strategy, 76 new companies had invested in R&D for the first time in Ireland.
In line with this, IDA Ireland’s strategy Winning FDI 2015-2019 outlines a plan to support clients in creating 80,000 new jobs and to win €3bn in new RDI investment projects, including in-house and collaborative RDI projects with companies and universities, and to encourage 120 additional companies across the FDI portfolio to engage in R&D for the first time.
Investment in R&D has the effect of anchoring FDI clients and securing sustainable employment and related benefits to the Irish economy. Half of IDA’s total grant-aid budget is allocated to RDI investments each year. This investment leverages RDI expenditure of €500 million by IDA clients for these approved investments and an overall annual spend by IDA clients of €1.65bn per annum on R&D.
IDA also have specific Research Development and Innovation Grants, which are open to all client companies planning or engaging in RD&I activities. These cover potential investments in research and development in areas such as:
- Manufacturing process development - application of combinations of science and technology tools (such as novel process analytical tools and new engineering solutions) to drive improvements in productivity/consistency where the company faces technical risk and uncertainty.
- New product development - application of combinations of science and technology (such as novel materials, novel code) to design, prototype and test new products where the company faces technical risk and uncertainty.
- Services innovation - application of science and technology (such as data analytics) to create new service offerings or radical re-engineer existing services where the company faces significant risk through technical risk and uncertainty.
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