Smart policy - Focus on hi-tech, rest will follow

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt O’Keeffe announced yesterday that he is to chair a high-level implementation group to deal with the recommendations in the report of the innovation taskforce published in March.

The implementation group is drawn from both the private and public sectors with the aim of generating 117,000 jobs in the next 10 years.

The goal is to support technological ideas and processes that have commercial potential. The group’s brief is to ensure that the country makes the best use of the smart economy, and this can be achieved by ensuring that people with an innovative track record in the private sector are combined with the senior members of the various government departments that are likely to be involved. Those include the secretaries general of the Departments of the Taoiseach, Finance, Enterprise, Education and Communication.