asked the Minister for Industry, Trade, Commerce and Tourism if he can confirm that in the area of Government funding of research and development — which is a key area in the Government White Paper on industrial policy — Ireland shares bottom place with Greece in the EC table; and the present position in regard to the efforts being made to co-operate with European firms in the area of research and development.
Written Answers. - Research and Development.
429.
Ireland does not share bottom place with Greece in the EC table of Government funding of research and development. Ireland in fact occupies ninth place in the table. It has to be borne in mind that Ireland has little or no expenditure on research in the areas of space, nuclear or defence, unlike most other EC member countries who have a heavy commitment in these areas. A welcome development is the recent upswing in research and development in industrial firms, which the Government would be concerned to develop further.
In the matter of co-operation with European firms in the area of research and development, important successes have been achieved in the level of Irish participation in the ESPRIT programme (European Strategic Programme for R & D in Information Technologies) and the EC energy programmes. This level represents a more than adequate return on our investment in the programmes. A similar situation applies in the case of participation by Irish firms in the work of the European Space Agency.
New important EC programmes in biotechnology and in basic technological research in support of industry, particularly textiles, are in the pipeline. These programmes will provide further opportunities for co-operation with European firms. The Irish Presidency will be making every effort to ensure favourable Council decisions on these programmes before the end of the year.