Sir, - At a recent economic conference in UCC Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School spoke about the potential dangers to the Irish economy in the short term unless we take steps to alter our infrastructures. He spoke of the need to develop a vibrant culture of inventiveness in our domestic market.
At present our promotion of inventiveness is almost non-existent. And the assistance of inventors leaves a lot to be desired.
Enterprise Ireland is the State agency with responsibility for assisting people with inventions. My experience of using its services is that it is so under funded that it is not in a position to properly research most inventions. If the description of one's invention includes "technical" words, which are also in a previous invention, the new invention will not even get evaluated, notwithstanding its merits.
This is definitely not the type of infrastructure needed to promote what I believe Prof Porter was advocating. In the meanwhile I will not be approaching Enterprise Ireland again unless I am sure that the efforts that I put into inventions are given appropriate consideration. We need a better level of support from Enterprise Ireland for the sake of Ireland's continuing economic development. - Yours, etc.,
Brendan O'Donoghue, Raheen Close, Tallaght, Dublin 24.