Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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538. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on Ireland remaining a highly-skilled economy, when State investment in research as a percentage of GDP is below the EU average. [53342/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Ireland’s policy of investing in our R&I capability over the past twenty years has had a significant impact on our industrial development, contributing to job creation and economic prosperity. As a result of a sustained commitment to research, development and innovation, Ireland has successfully built-up research capacity and an international reputation for research excellence.

Total public and private expenditure on R&I (i.e., Gross Expenditure on R&D or GERD) has increased significantly in recent years, from €2.6 billion in 2011 to an estimated €4.6 billion in 2020, a 79% increase in value. This increase has been largely driven by enterprise expenditure growth, from €1.8 billion in 2011 to an estimated €3.4 billion in 2020.

Despite the significant increase in value of public and private expenditure on R&I, limited progress has been achieved towards Ireland’s previous research intensity rate target of 2.5% of GNP, which rose from 1.55% in 2015 to an estimated 1.63% in 2020. This is related, at least in part, to Ireland’s economic growth which has increased at a rate well above the EU average: over the period 2009 to 2020, Ireland’s GDP, GNP and GNI* grew by 120%, 102% and 55% respectively. In 2020, we stood at 1.23% and 2.21% of GDP and GNI* respectively.

Ireland was ranked 6th in the EU for innovation performance in the 2022 European Innovation Scoreboard. This matches our previous peak position of 6th in 2016, and our position puts us higher than 13 other Member States that invest a higher proportion of GDP.

However, we cannot be complacent. Failing to keep pace with other small, advanced economies in terms of investment in R&I represents a significant risk to the competitiveness of our economy, to our labour market productivity, to the growth of high-value employment, to our attractiveness to FDI and to our global standing as a ‘strong innovator’. In addition, innovation will be crucial to developing solutions to meeting national challenges such as climate change and digitalisation – addressing these will require increased investment in R&I to deliver responses beyond incremental improvements.

Earlier this year, I launched Impact 2030: Ireland’s Research and Innovation Strategy. Notwithstanding the highly competitive global environment, Impact 2030 will sustain and will improve our internationally recognised R&I system, addressing any identified gaps emerging relative to competitors and leveraging our own particular strengths in order to position Ireland as a centre of R&I excellence and impact.

As part of our new overall research intensity rate target of 2.5% of GNI*, we will continue to increase public investment in order to deliver the solutions, the people and the academic-enterprise collaborations that will support a strong and sustainable economy that addresses key economic and societal challenges.