I thank members for accepting the request of the Irish Medical and Surgical Trade Association, IMSTA, to appear before the joint committee to make a presentation on providing sustainable employment in high-end jobs within the medical technology sector in Ireland. I appreciate that the joint committee has a full agenda and therefore, its meeting with IMSTA is especially welcome. I am joined by Mr. Padraic Dempsey, a member of IMSTA's board and a sponsor of our procurement supply chain industry group. Although our chairman was due to attend this meeting, unfortunately he has been obliged to decline to appear at the last minute due to a medical uncertainty.
IMSTA is the representative body of the medical technology supply industry in Ireland and I will elaborate shortly on what exactly that encompasses. The industry employs 30,000 people, mostly in high-end jobs, while supporting approximately 120,000 other jobs. It is an important part of our economy. It produces 10% of total exports, which are valued at more than €6 billion annually. Innovative medical technology can have a dramatic effect on patients' health and quality of life. It saves lives and can save the Exchequer money. A vibrant manufacturing base for medical technology development, quality health services and economic prosperity are inextricably intertwined. There is considerable potential for growth in this knowledge-intensive sector, leading to expansion of manufacturing activities and job creation.
Medical technology is a part of the health technology that encompasses a wide range of health care products and, in one form or another, is used to diagnose, monitor or treat every disease or condition that affects humans. These innovative technologies, that is, the application of science and technology, are improving the quality of health care delivered and patient outcomes through earlier diagnosis, less invasive treatment options and reductions in hospital stays and rehabilitation times. Health technology is any intervention that may be used to promote health or to prevent, diagnose or treat disease. It includes the pharmaceuticals, devices, procedures and organisational systems used in health care. Pharmaceutical exports in 2009 were worth €44 billion, device exports account for a further €7 billion and the ICT industry is worth €20 billion annually, of which the health care ICT sector is a growing part. Consequently, medical technology and innovation are part of the solution, not part of the problem.
I will turn to the reason for our appearance before the joint committee. IMSTA is committed to engagement with stakeholders to facilitate a better understanding of how the industry can help the Government to meet its objective of a stronger patient-centred health service while simultaneously contributing to the Government's smart economy objectives. Enhanced partnership between the health system, academia and industry facilitate innovation. The Departments of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation and Health and Children must work together and with industry for the benefit of patients and industry. Focusing on this industrial sector reflects the Government's agenda by stimulating innovation as a means to maintain Ireland's edge as a global leader in the life sciences market. We believe that Ireland has unique potential to offer a comprehensive industry solution by leveraging and integrating the device supply capabilities to facilitate research and development and regulatory approval requirements of the device industry as it evolves. The supply side of the industry operates at the interface between patients and clinicians and as such, is uniquely placed to work with specialists to identify, validate and develop the future technological innovations that will sustain the vibrancy of the sector in Ireland.
The role of the Government is to help to create the right conditions for enterprise to grow and prosper. The enterprise support agencies in Ireland have an enviable track record in attracting foreign direct investment and they treat investors like rock stars. However, when it comes to using the innovative technologies manufactured and marketed in Ireland, the health sector treats world-class highly sophisticated medical technology products like commodities. Rock stars get treated like beggars. This disconnect between enterprise and health sectors must be fixed. Public procurement policy appears to know the price of everything and the value of nothing. The HSE's national service plan for 2010 states "literature suggests that health technology is a greater driver of costs than demography". I am unsure what that means. The HSE's national director of finance repeated the same sentence in a late payments lunch debate in Brussels at the end of March.
In other words, Ireland Inc. thinks that innovation in health technology is a cost driver and clearly, the health service is averse to it. What message does this send to potential future foreign direct investment companies? This lack of foresight is having a negative effect on Ireland's reputation as a good place in which to do business. It undermines the Government's strategy of positioning Ireland as a competitive and innovation-driven location. It is contrary to the excellent efforts of the enterprise support agencies to create high-end knowledge-based jobs. It affects our long-term prosperity and the quality of our lives. We risk developing a "for export only" strategy in respect of innovative medical technologies. Are Irish patients not entitled to get access to medical technologies developed and manufactured in Ireland by Irish people? Does the Government want to have a world-class medical technology enterprise culture and a second rate health service? Clinical and specialist input is needed to evaluate correctly and procure sophisticated medical technology, which should not simply be contracted for the lowest price if we are to give a quality health service and provide sustainable employment in the sector.
For patients, the Government must guarantee access to the most clinically and cost-effective drugs and treatments. For new medical technologies, the Government must simplify the pathway by which they pass from development into wider use and must develop ways to benchmark and monitor uptake. The Government should support innovation as a driver of productivity. Dialogue with industry to understand sectoral needs is essential for the continued success of Irish enterprise. The Departments of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation and Health and Children must work together and with industry to develop policies that are good for health and good for the economy.
In addition, the Department of Health and Children, the Health Service Executive, HSE, and the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, must work together to enable innovative medical technologies. The new HSE directorate of quality and clinical care, led by the highly able Dr. Barry White, is to reorient the management focus from professional hierarchical functions to clinical units of management. This could result in the adoption of a much more "whole of life" approach to the procurement of medical technology. HIQA was set up to drive quality, safety, accountability and the best use of resources in the health and social services and has established a health technology assessment division to advise the Minister for Health and Children on the economic evaluation of health technologies. The resources exist and all that is needed is a little joined-up thinking. I am happy to note that today, the Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, is opening a centre at Cherrywood, Dublin, for one of our members, Covidien. In addition, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, was present for the announcement of the creation of 200 jobs in its commercial operations centre.
In summary, medical technology and innovation are part of the solution to rising health care costs and not a cause of them. Medical technology and innovation are part of the solution to hasten economic renewal, productivity growth and jobs. We ask the joint committee to support IMSTA in its efforts to induce the Government to set up a joint ministerial-industry group to review and co-ordinate a Government strategy to provide sustainable employment and high-end jobs within the medical device sector in Ireland and to review procurement procedures for medical technology.