ENTERPRISE AND INNOVATION:THE CAPITAL budget will see €2.4 billion invested in scientific research to 2016 and another €1.2 billion in Ireland's enterprise base. With other programmes, this means a combined €3.8 billion will be spent in pursuit of the Government's smart economy agenda.
These funds will be channelled through programmes run by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, including IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and the two key research funders, Science Foundation Ireland and the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions.
The enterprise allocation is slightly up on that originally proposed under the National Development Plan (2007-2013). It will represent a relief to the science community given the Government has stood by its commitment to research as a cornerstone of economic development.
The spending also illustrates the Government’s twin-track approach of backing academic research while also supporting foreign direct investment by high-tech companies and research in indigenous firms.
The aim is to back a science, technology and innovation (STI) agenda which the document says lies at the core of economic renewal. Support for STI activities is “central to enterprise policy and by extension, efforts to secure a return to economic growth”. The enterprise agencies will therefore receive “an unprecedented level of resources” in support of the smart economy and job creation.
While combined STI programmes would receive €2.41 billion, the IDA would receive €602 million, Enterprise Ireland another €589 million and other programmes €197 million in the years to 2016. This would create 63,000 direct new jobs and 44,000 indirect jobs in the wider economy and would enable up to 100 high-potential start-up firms to form each year by 2016.
