Where are the Irish inventors? Maybe they are everywhere and maybe it's just that they are not getting a fair shake. Much has been written about the new money men - not all of it good - about the whizz kids who have turned golden overnight. But in the world of the inventor, the path to riches can be a little more fraught.
The spin-off tends to be less immediate than the throw of a die, so to speak, on the world's stock exchanges. For my money, I'd rather sit down with someone who thought it up, turned it out - usually against the odds - and brought it to the market.
In 1987, Derek Rynhart started work on a fuel injection system, aimed at, in the jargon of those in the business, down-pricing the diesel engine to compete with smaller petrol engines. "Down-pricing" - what does that mean to the man in the street? Well, it could be that it means a lot.
Based in Bantry, west Cork, the Rynhart team developed an engine that was competitive, cost-efficient and which had the potential to satisfy emissions legislation.
International patents have been granted for the new technology. The engine has been designed to be capable of a quick and simple adjustment to operate on other fuels, including gas or vegetable-based oils, and has, according to the Rynhart team, long-life features coupled with low running costs.
"We expect that the unique attributes of long life, high power/weight ratio and environmental compatibility will be highly attractive, not only in the developed world but in the new markets of the fast-growing developing countries, where village power supplies must be largely self-sufficient, using diesel and indigenous fuels, thereby creating the need for small engines in the farming and irrigation areas," Mr Killian Kenny, project manager, said.
Rynhart Research and Development is anxious that all or part of the newly-developed engine/injector would be manufactured in Ireland, he said.
"When the enormity of the new development is fully realised, it would be a national shame if the resultant job opportunities were not fully availed of in this country," Mr Kenny said.
