Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 December 2018
282. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the degree to which she continues to maximise business and innovation opportunities to enhance job creation through innovation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50843/18]
View answer283. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the degree to which she continues to support business through innovation and maximisation of opportunities; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50844/18]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 282 and 283 together.
My Department recognises that innovation is key to maintaining competitiveness for Ireland in global markets, and for providing jobs and sustaining growth across the whole of the economy, as well as embedding the foreign direct investment base in Ireland.
In 2018, Ireland rose to 9th place in the European Innovation Scorecard. We also retained our position in the Global Innovation Index, ranking 10th out of 126 countries.
Ireland's strategy for research and development, science and technology, Innovation 2020, articulates Ireland's ambition to become a Global Innovation Leader, identifying priority themes, which have been revised to reflect the impact of technological change and digitisation.
A report published by my Department in October 2018,‘The Research and Development Budget (R&D) 2017 – 2018’ presents the latest available data on the Government Research and Development (R&D) Budget and on Ireland’s R&D expenditure across all sectors.
It reports that Government Budget Allocations for R&D (GBARD) in 2017 was €739.3m, an increase of 2.8% in expenditure over the previous year. It also reports that a total of 36,087 personnel (full-time equivalents) were working in R&D in 2016. Of these, 18,203 were working in the business sector, 1,891 in the higher education sector and 933 in the Government sector.
My Department, through its agencies Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), Enterprise Ireland (EI) and IDA Ireland supports both business and higher education sectors RDI activities. My Department is also making significant investments to develop the national ecosystem of research and technology centres.
Ireland’s continued economic growth and prosperity depends on maintaining and indeed increasing investment across the broad science, technology and innovation spectrum.
My commitment to continuing support for innovation can be evidenced by the increase in my Department's 2019 innovation budget to €368.95m – an increase of €40.25m over 2018. This will be spent over a range of initiatives and programmes that advance innovation and facilitate opportunities for Irish interests on EU and world markets. SFI and EI R&D programmes account for over 80% of my Department's innovation budget. SFI and EI will continue to leverage EU and private sector funding for research programmes, building on successes to date.
A specific innovation programme is Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), managed by EI, which enables public sector bodies to connect with innovative ideas and technology businesses, to provide innovative solutions for specific public-sector challenges and needs. 10 SBIR challenges have issued in 2018 with a further HSE suite of challenges expected before year end.
Of particular innovative relevance in the 2019 budget is the allocation of €20m for Phase I of the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund, which has a total fund of €500m as set out in Project Ireland 2040. This fund is about exploiting research to deliver new technologies and new solutions. It will incentivise collaborations between companies, colleges and other public-sector bodies to deploy disruptive technology in Ireland, in ways that will create entirely new companies and even new sectors in due course.
The budget also includes an additional €10m in 2019 as part of a €100m dedicated PhD/Masters training programme through SFI in areas aligned to enterprise needs. An additional €5m in 2019 is specifically allocated for the renewal of six of SFI's world-leading research centres. SFI engage in excellent research with industry and to date this has resulted in over 600 contracts with industry, €150m of industry co-funding and €170m of competitively won funding from Europe.
There is also assistance available from the European Union. Horizon 2020 is the instrument that supports collaborative R&D in Europe. Irish companies that compete successfully for funding from Horizon 2020 will boost their innovation capability and competitiveness, which in turn, will deliver strong national economic impacts, including job creation and increases in sales and exports. My agencies provide support to their client companies in this application process. Ireland has secured over €630m research funding through the current Horizon 2020 programme and remains on course to achieve its ambitious target of €1.25 billion in research funding by the conclusion of the programme.
However, notwithstanding all these innovation supports, more needs to be done. Technological change is already impacting several sectors, such as manufacturing, finance, retail and transport. These changes will present both challenges and new opportunities - certain job roles will disappear or be redefined and brand-new job roles will appear requiring new and different skillsets. Technological innovation is radically transforming our lives, and this will continue.
I am aware that we need to work now to position Ireland to prepare for and respond to these changes. For Ireland to be at the frontier of technological developments we must both encourage and facilitate innovation across sectors and firms - by increasing investment in RD&I and promoting strong links between enterprise and the research community, both nationally and internationally.
To this end, my Department, along with the Department of the Taoiseach, is currently developing the Future Jobs Initiative, a new cross-Government strategy to guide the next phase of Ireland's economic development. The focus is on quality jobs, improving productivity and building a resilient and innovative economy. Innovation and technological change is one of the five key pillars and this focus will have a positive impact on the innovation ecosystem.
