Ireland Spending on R&D To Get Richer
In a piece I read yesterday, FinFacts Ireland highlighted an Irish Independent report that the Irish Government is to spend a huge amount of money over the next two and a half years in a big drive to push Ireland higher up the league of world economies. And you thought we were number one.
If it works, expect more Irish immigrants to return to Ireland, and new American scientists to move to Ireland. The main points seem to be:
• Complete in 2013
• Boost R&D spending to 2.5% of GDP
• Double number of postgraduates
• Attract significant numbers of scientists to world-class research in Ireland. (Work permit legislation has already begun)
• Funding to recruit people into the country, and to accelerate R&D by Irish companies.
• Enterprise Ireland to get more incentives for indigenous industry (it exceeded its previous targets in prompting new research).
• Open up five main areas of the economy for hugely enhanced R&D - agri-food, marine industries, energy, healthcare and the environment. (Ireland is already doing well in biotechnology and I.T. sectors, so resting on our laurels there)
Spending in Ireland is currently at only 1% of GDP, while the world’s bigger economies - such as the US - spend 3-4% of their output on planning and imagining the next generation of products and services. Imagine that.
The overall emphasis seems to be on a shift from exploiting others to harnessing Irish strengths. Think of Sinn Fein as a motto, if you will. The Taoiseach believes the way forward is tapping into Ireland’s apparent long tradition of creativity and our talent for communication. Economic greatness through poetry?
And the Education Minister, Mary Hanafin, has ruled out engineering School Exam results to encourage a greater uptake of science among students - though in fairness I suspect she was only asked because once upon a time bonus points were awarded for Maths. The arrangement of getting bonus marks if you take all exams through Irish will remain however.
It was from such similar vision by Charles Haughey, Bertie Ahern, Michael Flatley, or whoever, that something called the Celtic Tiger economy was born.
You can of course read the actual report in the Indo itself, but I hate having to log in every time to that and every other paper on the Unison site. Plus they keep messing up my password. They’ve had four years; they get no more.
See Also:
• Ireland: High Tech & Low Corporate Tax
• Irish Pay Deal & Migrants
• Be Irish (& old) and receive over $3,000
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