A dhaoine uaisle, tá an-áthas orm a bheith anseo inniu leis an gComhaontas Nuálaíochta idir Choláiste na Tríonóide agus Ollscoil Átha Cliath a sheoladh. Mar is eol daoibh, i mí na Nollag seo caite d’fhoilsigh an Rialtas an Creat um Athnuachan Eacnamaíochta Inbhuanaithe a bhí bunaithe ar Chur le Geilleagar Stuama na hÉireann. Thug an doiciméad seo dúshlán do gach geallsealbhóir sa tír maidir leis an mbealach ina mbeidh orainn oibriú as lámh a chéile agus cur le gach a bhfuil bainte amach againn leis an tír a chur ar bhonn láidir eacnamaíochta amach anseo agus le poist atá ar chaighdeán ard a chruthú do na glúnta atá anois ann agus do na glúnta atá le teacht.
Is athrú mór é seo, rud a thabharfaidh misneach dúinn tabhairt faoi na dúshláin eacnamaíochta atá ann faoi láthair é an Comhaontas Nuálaíochta seo idir Coláiste na Tríonóide agus Ollscoil Átha Cliath atá á fhógairt anseo inniu. Creidim go bhfuil agus go mbeidh tionchar agus aitheantas idirnáisiúnta tuillte agus á bhaint amach aige.
Is féidir linn a bheith bródúil go bhfuil an dá ollscoil is mó agus is cáiliúla sa tír, Coláiste na Tríonóide agus Ollscoil Átha Cliath ag tabhairt faoi na dúshláin atá roimh Gheilleagar na hÉireann agus do na tionscnaimh agus don fhís atá sa Chreat don Gheilleagar Stuama.
Tá mé ag súil go mór go dtiocfaidh tionscnaimh den chineál seo ó eagraíochtaí ar fud na tíre.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to be here today to launch the Trinity and UCD Innovation Alliance .
Ireland faces extremely challenging economic circumstances. The speed at which these circumstances have moved is truly remarkable. Only recently, economic forecasters were predicting positive growth rates for the US and the eurozone and, in May, the ESRI was forecasting a 3% growth rate for Ireland in 2009. How different the reality has turned out to be.
Countries across the globe are struggling to adjust to these unprecedented circumstances. Rapid changes in economic circumstances require rapid responses from Government. Nevertheless, as the economic situation across the globe is constantly shifting and changing, we must also retain flexibility so that our response can be adapted to address developments as they occur.
The four corner stones of the Government’s strategy are:
Sorting the banking situation in order to restore credibility, confidence and get credit flowing;
Attacking the gap in our public finances by increasing revenue and cutting spending, in a planned way, over the next 5 years;
Protecting jobs and restoring competitiveness to the way we do business, supporting viable but vulnerable enterprises; and
Investing in those who are out of work so that they can return to employment as soon as possible.
In December, the Government published the Framework for Sustainable Economic Renewal based onBuilding Ireland’s Smart Economy. It includes an ambitious set of actions to reorganise the economy over the next five years and to secure the prosperity of current and future generations and to build on initiatives already in place. In Budget 2009 and the Finance Bill we introduced a range of incentives to encourage an intensification of investment by companies in high-value research and development activities, to assist start-up innovative companies, and to enhance the availability of seed capital so needed by those wishing to scale their companies.
The Smart Economy will have:
A critical mass of companies – both Irish and international – at the forefront of innovation, creating the products and services of tomorrow;
A highly educated, innovative and entrepreneurial workforce;
A country where entrepreneurs from anywhere in the world will want to come because it provides the best environment for the commercialisation of leading-edge products and services;
It will have highly favourable business supports, tax regime and infrastructural supports;
It will have state agencies and institutions which are aligned to create competitive advantage for their clients in innovation enterprise;
And all of this supported by a public service that is citizen-centered and pro-business.
In difficult times, we must not lose sight of just how much Ireland has transformed itself over the last twenty years. Many of the key factors that fed into that transformation – and indeed many of the results of the process of change – will serve us well now as we rise to new challenges.
Almost 1,000 overseas companies have chosen to invest in Ireland as their European base and are involved in a wide range of activities in sectors as diverse as engineering, information communications technologies, pharmaceuticals, medical technologies, GreenTech, and financial and international services. We also have hundreds of thriving R&D-intensive indigenous companies.
We continue to have considerable successes despite the economic downturn. For example, two weeks ago, Intel announced a major expansion at its Research and Development facility in Clare. Yesterday, I announced a substantial expansion of HP’s activities at its Technology Campus in Leixlip.
The Government’s Smart Economy document posed a challenge to all stakeholders in Irish society about how we can work together, work smarter, and build on what we have achieved, to put Ireland on a sound economic trajectory for the future, and to create quality jobs for current and future generations.
The TCD-UCD Innovation Alliance being announced here today is a radical departure and is a huge boost for the country in rising to our economic challenges. I believe it deserves, and will achieve, international impact and recognition.
The Provost and President will take you through the various elements of their Innovation Alliance in a moment. But I believe the 4th-level academy is a highly significant advance, which will create business-ready and innovative graduates and will help Ireland remain an attractive destination for multinational investment.
These new types of graduates will not only be excellent employees but, through innovation and entrepreneurship, will develop new Irish-owned global companies that will provide quality jobs for our citizens.
The merging of much of the research and development and 4th-level teaching activities of these fine universities will greatly enhance the student experience and, I hope, in time will become a model for others nationally and internationally. The Joint Venture in Enterprise Development and the merging of technology transfer offices will greatly enhance the economic impact of Ireland’s expenditure on research by helping to nurture ideas and assist in transforming them into viable companies and jobs for our citizens.
It has been an established feature of the Government’s support for research and innovation to encourage collaboration across institutions, within the high education sector, and between these institutions and industry. There are many successful examples of such collaboration between different combinations of bodies. I am confident that this initiative will encourage others to deepen their own collaboration strategies, both with the new Academy and otherwise, in the interests of the efficiency and effectiveness of our efforts. This will be facilitated by the maintenance of a firm commitment to competitive processes and internationally validated peer-review.
I firmly believe that, in global terms, being a relatively small country has been a distinct advantage for Ireland. Our small size means that consultation between Government, business, education and other sectors can take place quickly and effectively, and we are nimble at adapting our policy and legislative framework when required. I was very enthused to hear about the buy-in to this ‘Innovation Alliance’ from the business and student communities.
To advance the development of Ireland as an international innovation hub and to assist in making the Smart Economy a reality, I am today announcing the establishment of an Innovation Taskforce. This Taskforce will be chaired by the Secretary General of my Department, Dermot McCarthy, and involve participation from the public and private sectors. Its membership will be announced in the coming weeks.
The Innovation Taskforce will draw on international experience and successful national models such as the IFSC. It will examine options to increase levels of innovation and the rates of commercialisation of research and development on a national basis with a view to accelerating the growth and scale-up of indigenous enterprise and to attract new knowledge-intensive direct investment. It will also identify specific policy measures that assist these goals.
I expect the Taskforce to report to Government in six months from its first meeting.
Conclusion
It is sometimes said that our institutions are slow to respond to difficult circumstances. I think we can be proud that Ireland’s two largest and highest-ranked universities, Trinity College and UCD, have responded to the challenges faced by the Irish economy and to the initiatives and vision put forward in the Smart Economy Framework. Changing radically the way they work together, the merging of their activities and, most importantly, upping the ambition they have for how the university sector can contribute to economic renewal, are timely and welcome. I look forward to similar initiatives coming forward from across the country.
Thank you.
ENDS.