Address by Mr. Micheál Martin TD, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, at the launch of his Department’s Contribution to the National Development Plan 2007-2013,

at the Rochestown Park Hotel, Cork.

I am delighted to be here this morning with An Taoiseach to launch my Department’s strategic initiatives as part of the new National Development Plan 2007-2013.

This new Plan, launched this week, is entitled “Transforming Ireland – A Better Quality of Life for All” and that title encapsulates exactly what the Government is setting out to achieve over the next 7 years – a transformation of Ireland to deliver a better quality of life for all our citizens. The Plan sets out the roadmap to Ireland’s future.

Within the next seven years, our economy and our society will undergo a transformation almost as radical as the changes we have experienced in the past decade of record levels of growth and development. During the next 7 years, the new National Development Plan will see Government invest some €184billion – including over €13.6 billion by my own Department - in securing the next step-change in our country’s economic and social transformation. This investment will enable us build on the recent unprecedented levels of economic and social progress which Ireland has achieved and continue our development as a competitive Knowledge Economy to ensure Ireland competes successfully in the global marketplace and continues to support high quality employment opportunities for our people.

For my part, I am particularly pleased the Government has given such a high profile in the Plan to Investment in Enterprise, Science and Innovation and to Investment in Human Capital as key elements of our strategy to deliver more and better jobs, in a competitive and safe working environment, for our citizens. Greatly enhancing enterprise development, science, technology and innovation, working age training and skills provision will improve economic performance, competitiveness and our capacity to generate new enterprise winners from the indigenous sector, as well as continue to attract high value-added foreign direct investment, so vital to Ireland’s continuing economic and social progress

Human Capital

Ireland’s track record in education and skills investment has been one of the fundamental elements contributing to our recent economic success, and it is vital that we continue to invest significant levels of funding in Human Capital - that is, in upskilling our people. Developing an ever-more highly skilled and adaptable labour force is an important challenge facing Ireland as we seek to ensure the continuation of the economic success that underpins the growing prosperity of our people. However, we cannot rest on past success. Research by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs has made it clear that Ireland must continue to invest heavily in constantly educating and upskilling our work force if we are to continue to attract blue chip companies – both domestic and foreign owned – to provide the quality jobs our people deserve. We must therefore continue to invest heavily on further education and training for those already in employment as well as on making those currently without employment “job-ready”.

In our new National Development Plan, my Department will invest some €7.7 billion in upskilling the workforce in order to maintain access to the highest standards of education and training for all our people. Without such significant investment we cannot meet the labour skills required to compete in the knowledge-based, innovation-driven global economy of today.

This level of Investment in Human Capital – or on upskilling our rapidly growing work force - will be targeted in two main strategic directions. Approximately €2.8 billion will be invested in upskilling people in employment - including new skills for those affected by industrial restructuring – as well as an expansion and enlargement of the apprenticeship system and further training for school leavers. Approximately €4.9 billion will be provided to target employment and training services to groups currently outside the workforce, including the unemployed, people with disabilities, women, lone parents, Travellers and ex-offenders.

The Enterprise Strategy Group report highlighted Ireland’s need to pursue a knowledge-based, innovation driven economy in order to maintain competitiveness into the future. A key “labour market” initiative in the next planning period will be the implementation of a National Skills Strategy based on the findings of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs report “Towards a National Skills Strategy”. The objective of this strategy is to ensure that we have, over the period to 2020, the skills required to remain competitive in the global marketplace.

This Strategy involves a vision where 48% of the labour-force would have qualifications at NFQ Levels 6 to 10, 45% would have qualifications at levels 4 & 5 and the remaining 7% would have qualifications at levels 1 to 3 by 2020. Within this objective, Ireland aims to build capability at 4th level and double its PhD output - Level 10 - by 2013. And this vision will be achieved by maximising the skills of the resident population through both education and training and at the same time continuing to attract a highly skilled migrant cohort.

To achieve the Vision, in addition to already planned provision, a little over half a million individuals will need to progress by at least one level of educational attainment above their current highest level. 300,000 of these workers will need to be trained up to leaving certificate level (NFQ levels 3, 4 and 5). The National Skills Strategy will encompass the One-Step-Up Initiative that had been endorsed by the Enterprise Strategy Group.

This investment in human capital will, of course, run in tandem with the many billions being invested in our education system at all levels – from primary to post-graduate – which, taken together, should make this country the place where indigenous entrepreneurs and foreign-owned enterprises look to set up base and grow their businesses, providing the employment opportunities our families and friends wish to have in their own homeland.

Enterprise Development

As well as investing in training and upskilling our workers, my Department will also be driving a programme of investment in enterprise development over the 7-year lifespan of the new Plan Some €3.3 billion is to be invested in a range of enterprise development initiatives driven by Agencies such as Enterprise Ireland, the IDA, Shannon Development and the County & City Enterprise Boards. The aim of our policies is to consolidate and facilitate the growth of this income-generating sector of the economy.

Together with the many initiatives this Government has introduced since 1997, from tax reform – at both corporate and personal level – to enterprise strategy and crucial infrastructural investments, the new €3.3 billion in NDP support for enterprise policy will enable Ireland to compete in the global marketplace and thereby maintain and grow the recent substantial gains we have made on the jobs front.

While globalisation and international market liberalisation has opened many foreign markets to Irish business, it has also resulted in a greater international presence in the Irish locally traded market, where the great majority of Irish businesses currently trade. As Irish companies continue to face increasing competition from major international players they will need to offer superior levels of innovation, service and quality in order to compete. In an increasingly competitive world, a greater proportion of the country’s wealth creation will, in future, have to be generated by indigenous companies with the potential to grow and to conquer international markets. In order to compete successfully in global markets in a range of high value sub-sectors, Irish-owned business must grow and develop to their full potential. To this end, indigenous enterprise, supported by Enterprise Ireland and the County and City Enterprise Boards, will enjoy Government investment of almost €1.7 billion over the Plan period, while over €1.6 billion will be invested in supporting Foreign Direct Investment policies and initiatives.

Our investment in indigenous enterprise will focus, in the main, on high-potential start up companies; on increasing the competitiveness and productivity of existing companies; and on developing world-class management standards and support for micro-enterprises. Our aim here is to assist Irish-owned businesses to grow and develop to their full potential in the national and international marketplace, in order that they can compete successfully in global markets in a range of high value sub-sectors. Their success will be the foundation on which greater economic prosperity will be based.

On the Foreign Direct Investment side, IDA Ireland and Shannon Development will continue to use a variety of instruments to promote FDI and to respond to the needs of existing and new client companies. Our FDI interventions will aim to encourage and further assist development and expansion opportunities, securing higher value investment, moving them up the value chain across the Regional locations. IDA services will include the provision of invaluable support and assistance in helping client companies develop strategies and drive their business forward thereby underpinning existing jobs and investment as well as developing new opportunities in the increasingly competitive global marketplace for mobile FDI.

Science Technology and Innovation

The development of the knowledge economy is one of the key challenges and opportunities facing all advance economies, especially one like Ireland. If we are to protect and expand on our current success it is essential that Ireland becomes a world-class centre for the development and exploitation of knowledge. While our progress in science over the past decade has been impressive, there are significant challenges ahead.

In 2000, Ireland initiated the largest investment in scientific research and engineering in its history by founding Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). Through the establishment of SFI, Ireland joined the growing number of countries that have recognized that major investments in these activities are required to keep modern economies competitive. SFI and its strategic orientation are central to Ireland’s goal of becoming a leader in the global knowledge-based economy. Building on its work to date, SFI will be delivering investment of €1.44 billion over the course of the 2007–2013 NDP. And this is just part of the Government’s commitment to the Strategy for Science Technology and Innovation, launched by the Government last summer with total NDP investment of €8.3 billion over the lifetime of this new Plan.

The policies and €8.3billion of funding outlined in the Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation, are crucial to Ireland securing its position as one of the world’s advanced knowledge economies and becoming renowned worldwide for the excellence of its research. The new NDP sees my Department alone investing €2.6billion in support of the strategy, clearly demonstrating, in real terms, this Government’s commitment to Science, Technology and Innovation. Such levels of investment will ensure that the benefits and opportunities of science, technology and innovation are at the heart of Irish economic and social development, and will allow us to use our knowledge and skills to drive the economy to new levels which will benefit all our citizens. By advancing Ireland’s knowledge we will deliver world-class people and enterprises with the drive and resources to succeed in a tough global environment.

Conclusion

The challenge to create value-added high quality jobs and the need for intensive knowledge based R&D to sustain our economic performance into the future is reflected in the extent of the Government’s commitment to this key area of enterprise, science and innovation and human capital investment I have outlined this morning. Investment in Enterprise, Science and Innovation is essential to Ireland’s continued attractiveness to high quality FDI and the development of our own indigenous companies, including those capable of becoming world leaders in product areas, as well as niche companies making specialised products based on our natural resources.

Enterprise investment will also underpin the ongoing modernisation of the agriculture sector, the further development of the tourism industry and support the rural economy.

I also very much welcome the strong all-island dimension of this NDP. Opportunities for all-island co-operation will be pursued by my Department in the fields of STI, the development of business clusters and networks and Labour Force Development initiatives, during the lifetime of the new Plan.

This Government’s commitment to Enterprise, Science and Innovation, and to Human Resource Development as key instruments in growing the Knowledge Economy has been confirmed in this new NDP. A 7-year Plan involving overall investments of some €184billion will certainly allow us transform Ireland and provide ‘a better quality of life for all’. The Plan is based on the continuation of excellent economic management and sound public finances – the means of delivering the resources to fund the ambitious economic and social programme set out in the Plan. My colleagues in Government will be driving the delivery of key investments in our economic and social infrastructure – in Transport, Energy and Environmental Services as well as in Housing, Health, Education and Childcare, to name just a few. Regional Development and the National Spatial Strategy will feature significantly in the years ahead, as will the all-island dimension. All these elements reflecting the needs of the growing Ireland of today.

Enterprise, Science and Innovation, and Human Resource Development are key instruments in growing the Knowledge Economy and are key elements of the new Plan. Together with our work to implement the many commitments agreed in the recently negotiated Towards 2016 Partnership Agreement, I look forward to driving the delivery of these key enterprise, trade and employment commitments as we seek to build further on the progress made under the last NDP. All are directed at enabling us ensure that we continue to grow quality employment and national competitiveness in a safe and harmonious working environment for the benefit of all our people.

Thank you.