The Government is correct to have committed itself to heavy, long-term investment in scientific research, as detailed in its Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation. The announcement that €3.8 billion would flow into Ireland's laboratories, both public and private, over the next seven years was welcomed across a wide front.
Unexpectedly, the Government wants this spending package to be front-loaded, with a spectacular €2.7 billion of the total ploughed into research in the two years to 2008. Academic researchers and their private sector counterparts will be hard pressed to absorb such substantial funding but will be happy, no doubt, to step up to the challenge.
The new investment builds on our continued drive towards a knowledge-based economy, a paradigm that proposes that wealth, jobs and continued development will flow from scientific and technical discovery and the creation of new knowledge. Pursuit of an economy built on knowledge rather than manufactured goods or commodities can only be achieved in the context of a well-developed culture of research and the ability to commercialise discoveries.
This funding takes us further along the road towards this goal and should accelerate our progress given the €2.54 billion already spent by the public and private sectors on research during the life of the National Development Plan 2000-2006. The older money helped to build research labs, funded the brightest and best scientists and bought them the tools they needed to conduct research. This new funding will further enhance our scientific talent bank and attract world-class researchers to our shores.
The Government has little option but to pursue the path towards innovation. It is one of the few ways open to us to remain internationally competitive. Labour costs are now lower in many countries which have learned from our successes. These countries are beginning to tap into the global investment pool and are proving just as adept at attracting high-value manufacturing given lower wages and costs. The Government's argument holds that even as our competitiveness erodes under international pressures, an enhancement of our ability to innovate opens up fresh opportunities and the potential to attract the highest-value elements of multinational investment, research and development.
We have already proved capable in attracting such activity from companies including Lucent, Wyeth, Intel and Amgen. These firms believe that Irish brainpower can help them solve problems and make discoveries. The source of this brainpower is the post graduate and post doctoral students leaving our academic laboratories to take up careers in research. The new Strategy for Science puts heavy emphasis on increasing the numbers of these graduates and also on promoting an involvement in research by all companies here. Success on these twin tracks is essential if we are to remain competitive and maintain a strong economy.