Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 June 2012
33 Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the steps he will take to increase spending in research and development to achieve the 3% of GDP set out in European Commission Horizon 20/20. [27314/12]
Amharc ar fhreagra37 Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will outline spending on research and development as a percentage of GDP; and the way that this fits with the target of 3% as outlined in the European Commission Horizon 20/20. [27313/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 33 and 37 together.
Under the Europe 2020 Strategy, the European Council adopted a number of headline targets, including improving the conditions for research and development, in particular with the aim of raising combined public and private investment levels to 3% of GDP. In accordance with the Strategy, Member States have adopted national targets on the basis of these headline targets, as set out in their National Reform Programmes, taking account of their relative starting positions and national circumstances. Ireland's National Reform Programme, transmitted to the European Commission on 29 April 2011, specified that Ireland's 2020 target in relation to R&D is to improve the conditions for research and development, in particular with the aim of raising combined public and private investment levels to 2.5% of GNP (approximately equivalent to 2.0% of GDP).
The latest available data on total research and development expenditure in the State, known as Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD), relates to the year 2010, and indicates that GERD as a percentage of GNP was 2.16% or 1.77% of GDP. Approximately two thirds of this expenditure is by the private sector. The National Reform Programme outlined a number of assumptions to reach the target for expenditure on R&D by 2020, in relation to the period up to and including 2014, in the context of the EU/IMF Programme of Financial Support, and subsequently on the basis of a return to sustainable growth domestically and a recovered global economy. This growth will be driven through a continuation of a supportive fiscal environment for R&D investment as well as supports for higher education R&D, industry linkages with higher education researchers, commercialisation of research results, in-company R&D and start-up companies.
