€500 million Innovation Fund to attract high quality employers to Ireland
A €500 million Innovation Fund was announced by Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD during his visit to the United States this week. The fund will be used to attract high quality employers to Ireland and to position Ireland as the best place in Europe for entrepreneurial activity. 14/07/10That’s according to local Fianna Fáil TD Niall Blaney who has welcomed the launch of the fund. Deputy Blaney said that the fund is a key part of the Government’s strategy to position Ireland as a ‘Global Innovation Hub’.
“The nature of employment in Ireland is changing. The Government is working on building a ‘Smart Economy’ by investing in education, research and development, and entrepreneurialism."
“The Taoiseach is in the United States selling Ireland and promoting its reputation as an ideal location for multinationals. The new €500 million Innovation Fund-Ireland he announced is specifically tailored to make it more attractive for high quality employers to base themselves here."
“We need to make Ireland the best place to turn research into products and to start a company. We have already had considerable success in attracting multinationals such as Google and Facebook here and we want to build on that. We want to build on our reputation as a place for research-intensive companies to collaborate with each other."
“An international public call for ‘expressions of interest’ will be issued soon and the Government will work with interested parties to get more highly skilled jobs created in Ireland."
“The target size for the Innovation Fund is €500m. Over ten years the maximum exchequer contribution will be up to €125m invested through Enterprise Ireland with the potential for the National Pension Reserve Fund (NPRF) to match this in accordance with its commercial mandate."
“The success of this strategy will not be seen on the ground immediately, but the ultimate aim of creating sustainable jobs for graduates emerging from our colleges and universities will be felt in the long term and will help us to avoid the kind of crash of unemployment that we have witnessed in the last couple of years following the bust in the construction industry."
“In Donegal, the development of Project Kelvin and the A5 road from Dublin to Derry is helping to make us better positioned to compete for this type of companies here,” Niall Blaney TD.
