Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 July 2012
291 Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation what job creation-announcement target he set for or agreed with Science Foundation Ireland for 2012, how much of this target it has reached at the end of June, what steps he is taking to support it in its efforts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36184/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe mandate of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) is to develop Ireland's human capital in strategic areas of scientific endeavour relevant to the future competitiveness of Irish industry and enterprise. It carries out this task by funding world-class research teams in our higher education institutions focussing on the areas of information and communications technologies, biotechnology and sustainable energy and energy efficient technologies.
The core outputs of SFI's activities are the range of world-class research teams in place, with indicators of their international rankings, taking into account the extent of their linkages with other research groups and with industry partners and the amount of funding leveraged from other sources.
While direct job support is not the core task of SFI, it should be noted that at the end of 2011 SFI funding was directly supporting 2,995 top-class research positions across Irish higher education institutions and these researchers leveraged €90m in non-Exchequer funding to Ireland last year.
A major impact attributable to SFI has been, and continues to be, its underpinning role for the enterprise and job creation activities of IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland (EI). SFI funded research activities are focal points of attraction for foreign direct investment in Ireland whilst also assisting the EI client base to maintain and grow employment levels, and also enhance their sales and exports capacity.
In 2011 the SFI funded research teams collaborated with 583 distinct companies, the majority of which are EI and IDA clients and which employ in excess of an estimated 82,000 people in Ireland.
Over the past number of years the SFI investment has helped to significantly enhance IDA Ireland's new client wins capacity. This can be evidenced by the fact that in 2004 the value of the foreign direct investment approvals achieved by the IDA that were research, development and innovation (RD&I) based amounted to €120m whilst the comparable 2011 level was €700m, a level nearly six times greater. This is a significant indicator of the strong research capacity that SFI, along with other research funders, has helped to develop in Ireland in recent years.
Through the quality of our human capital and the excellence of our research, Ireland has succeeded in attracting some of the most innovative companies in the world. For example:
9 of the Top 10 Pharmaceutical companies in the world now have operations here.
Similarly 15 of the Top 25 Medical Devices companies now have operations in Ireland;
As do 8 of the Top 10 global Technology companies; and
10 of the world's top selling drugs are produced in Ireland.
In terms of SFI activity in 2012, the capital funding provision of €156m this year will allow the Foundation to maintain its support to 28 top-class research centres whilst also supporting a cohort of approximately 3,000 researcher positions.
