It's all too easy to understate the talent and potential of indigenous industry and innovation. Everywhere we look, we hear of lack of investment in technology, of poor infrastructure and of a shortage of resources in research and development. It is only recently that we have stopped hearing about the flight of our brightest and our best.

On that reading, it would seem there is little to look forward to from our industrial base. It was refreshing therefore to read about the success of a small Cork-based company in producing a potential solution to one of the more high-profile problems of today's world - so-called "economy class syndrome" or deep vein thrombosis.

The appropriately-named Longhaul Technologies has produced a cushion which reduces the risk of blood clotting in the legs of travellers on long-haul air journeys. This week it announced that it has signed its first major deal - with Taiwan-based China Airlines - and revealed it was in discussions with a number of other airlines, including one of the major European operators.

The timing could not have been better from the company's point of view as the British medical journal, the Lancet, published research showing that as many as one in 10 long-haul travellers develop such potentially fatal clots.