More than 56,000 people are now engaged full time in employment related to the knowledge economy. The combined public and private spend on research is likely to reach €2.6 billion during 2009, according to the Minister of State for Science, Technology and Innovation Conor Lenihan.
Mr Lenihan was speaking today in Dublin at the launch of a report, Delivering the Smart Economy. Investment in the knowledge sector would provide the “key to our economic recovery”, Mr Lenihan said.
The purpose of the report was to describe how the substantial State investment in research was going and what benefits were flowing from it, he said.
“We do need to demonstrate where that money is being spent.”
While he accepted changes recommended in the McCarthy report on where public spending might be reduced, it was also important to show that money invested in research was providing a good return.
“I personally agree with the McCarthy report,” he said, but the data showed that the “State and private spending [on research] was working”.
Total research and development spending had tripled over the past 10 years, equivalent to 1.66 per cent of GNP. Private sector spending alone represented about 1.08 per cent of GNP.
More technology-based companies were coming here, the report indicated, with 40 per cent of IDA investments involving research and total investment of €430 million.
Higher education research spending has also increased significant, quadrupling over the past 10 years, the report indicated.