David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 16: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment her views on the need to maintain investment in research and development; her views on the present state of research and development here; and her plans to expand it. [17945/04]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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Ireland's sustained economic growth and prosperity depends on establishing a culture of scientific and technological innovation, a high level of research and development and a globally competitive knowledge based economy.

Under the National Development Plan 2000-2006 as much as €2.48 billion was allocated to research, technological development and innovation activities across all Departments and agencies. The two major elements of the investment, the programme for research in third level institutes operated by the Higher Education Authority and Science Foundation Ireland are progressing well. They have led to a significant strengthening of the research base.

So far the programme for research in third level institutions has allocated over €620 million for research and infrastructure. These investments enable universities and institutes of technology to develop and realise long-term strategic plans for developing their research capacity. As many as 24 major research centres were established and major programmes in human genomics and computational physics.

SFI was established to fund industry oriented basic research. To date €362 million has been committed to 310 research projects. Selection was based on scientific excellence as measured by international peer review. SFI investments support knowledge creation and human capital development and they are corner stones of a knowledge economy. The funding is being used to recruit and retain researchers and research groups capable of developing high impact, internationally significant discoveries in the fields underpinning biotechnology and information and communications technology.

Research investment was also increased in other sectoral areas to underpin policy and economic development and social well-being in a range of areas including agriculture, food, marine, environment and health.

The Government has demonstrated a sustained commitment to investment in research. The Finance Act 2004 provided the following: the introduction of a 20% tax credit for companies for incremental research and development expenditure; a stamp duty exemption for transfers of intellectual property such as copyright, patents and trademarks; and an extension of the business expansion and seed capital schemes. Departments also have significant budgetary allocations for the development of a national science base.

The State's significant investment in science and technology is intended to create a vibrant and well supported research community, provide a substantial resource for technology solutions and a basis for a stream of technology based start-ups. We are creating vital synergies between the Government, universities and entrepreneurs. The Government has invested heavily in knowledge and ideas creation. It has also made an equal investment in the crucial activity of commercialising outcomes through programmes of applied research in colleges and near to market exploitation within companies.

Considerable progress has been made to date and will continue within the NDP framework. Ireland's comparative performance in science, technology and innovation needs to improve considerably to match top performers such as Finland, the US and Japan, particularly for business expenditure on research and development. The Government is committed to continuing to invest in this vital area with a view to creating the conditions that encourage the creation of new knowledge. We want to translate that into new products processes, services and enterprises that will underpin our future competitiveness and growth.