Ireland - The Innovation Island"

Minister Kelleher explained that beyond controlling costs for businesses in Ireland, the Government has been preparing for recovery by reorienting the economy to ensure a resumption of sustainable growth as soon as possible.

"The lesson from severe global recessions in the past is that weathering the economic storm is not sufficient, countries need to restructure their economies to target the next wave of economic growth," he said.

The Minister was speaking in the Dáil on a private members motion on Government charges where he outlined some of the many ways that the Government was working to ensure Ireland's competitiveness was restored.

He highlighted the Government's commitment to driving down business costs at this critical time and said they viewed the control of such costs as vital to restoring competitiveness to the Irish economy.  

Minister Kelleher said a key part of the Government's vision for a Smart Economy was the need to effectively utilise the knowledge, skills and creativity of people and translate them into innovative processes, products and sustainable jobs.

"In Ireland we currently have one of the highest performing clusters of high-tech multinationals," he continued. "We will continue to incentivise these enterprises to invest further in high-value research and development areas to increase exports and create employment."

Minister Kelleher pointed out that Ireland was one of the most entrepreneurial economies in Europe with as many as 2,800 people setting up new businesses every month, a per capita rate significantly higher than that of the EU and the OECD: "We are investing billions in research and we must ensure we get maximum return for this investment. 

"We will intensify our efforts towards creating the best research, innovation and commercialisation ecosystem in Europe, marketed internationally as 'The Innovation Island,'" he concluded.