Ireland’s R&D spend ‘too low’

“IRELAND’S and the EU’s research and development (R&D) spend must be significantly increased if we are to compete on a level playing field with our competitors in the US and Japan and foster growth outside of major city hubs,” said Enterprise Ireland’s north east regional director Rosemary Sexton at a WIT conference yesterday.

And our target of setting aside 3% of GDP for R&D spend as set out in the EU by 2010 was “entirely unachievable” given the current 1.9% European average, she added. At present, the average US spend on R&D is 2.7% of GDP, and in Japan, 3.1%.

“Back in 1998, business R&D investment stood at about 1.1% or 1.2%. In that context, 1.4% of GDP is not in such a bad place to be now. However, it is not good enough when we look at the international norm.”