FF Senator: Innovation culture can lure top brains to Ireland
Ireland could attract the best brains in Europe if it fosters a cutting edge science and innovation environment, an Oireachtas Committee heard today.
Fianna Fáil Senator Donie Cassidy said low corporation tax rates had lured successful foreign investment in the past but future economic competitiveness depended on a new approaches.
“We could become the central magnet attracting the brains of Europe, that could have a very high rate of success in relation to innovation and in time this will create massive job creation,” Mr Cassidy told the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
The senator was speaking following a presentation from Enterprise Ireland on its 2006 annual report.
A total of €52.9m was invested into supporting 194 research and development projects, mostly outside Dublin.
Mr Cassidy added: “If through the Department (of Enterprise, Trade and Employment) and the recommendations of Enterprise Ireland we could lead Europe in relation to attracting the brains of Europe for innovation and science that would carry us forward for the next 25 years.”
He added the 12.5% corporation tax rate had already prompted sustained foreign direct investment and called for greater encouragement of entrepreneurial skills at colleges across the country.
“The (innovation) incubator units that could be created by the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) and Enterprise Ireland could assist in the funding of those as well,” he said.
Enterprise Ireland chief executive Frank Ryan said official measures like the innovation vouchers scheme introduced last April were intended to boost small businesses.
He added a key aim of his organisation was to achieve 4 billion euros worth of new export sales by 2010.
“Innovation across all aspects of business will be central to securing the company growth required to fuel the economy,” he added.
Mr Ryan added areas like China, India and Russia would provide the major growth opportunities in the future.
He said Ireland had become a developed economy along the lines of Germany, the US or Japan and said the focus had shifted from attracting foreign companies to encouraging imaginative local industry.
Concerns about the marginalisation of border counties like Donegal were also raised at the meeting.
Independent Senator Mary White said: “In Donegal there is a sense of nothing happening and people are living in communities and what is the future for those particular areas?
“They suffered from the civil strife of the last 30 years.
“I feel we need businesses around the country to realise that people are losing their jobs in agriculture.”
Mr Ryan stressed the importance of efforts to encourage start-ups.
“There is a great need for a realisation to take place that the future economic growth is going to be driven by the performance of the business industry and that means that no county can be left behind.”
