 You're all very welcome. My name is Alex White, Director General of the Institute of International European Affairs. I'm pleased to welcome you to this event this morning. As a webinar on the 23rd of March, 2022, the then-Tonyshta and Minister of Enterprise Trade and Employment League of Radker announced the planned publication of a white paper on enterprise, which would outline set out Ireland's enterprise policy from 2022 to 2030. That white paper was published, and if I may say so, with great expedition at the end of 2022, I found out mistaken on the 7th of December, 2022, which was some days before our distinguished guest Minister Simon Coveney took office in the middle of December, as far as I recall, of last year. So he then, of course, it was and is responsible for our enterprise policy and produced even more quickly. Again, if I may say so, the implementation plan for the white paper and that implementation plan was published relatively the 31st of May of this year, which I'm sure the Minister will touch on. So the context is clear. It doesn't have to be explained or justified. There's so much happening. And we discuss it here at the Institute, the, for example, passage of the inflation Reduction Act in the United States, the progression of the Green Industrial Plan, the Net Zero Industry Act. Just take your pick, all of these initiatives and developments at EU level and elsewhere. It's clear that the white paper on enterprise policy and its implementation takes on an enormous level of importance and setting out the future direction of Ireland's enterprise policy over the coming decade. So we're honoured to welcome. I see at least two members of the diplomatic corps. You're welcome, ambassadors, other distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, all of you, but in particular, to welcome back to the IIA, Simon Coveney, TD Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment. The event will begin now with shortly with an address by Minister Coveney on the white paper and its implications. Following this, we move to a panel discussion during which Martina Fitzgerald, CEO of Scale Ireland, Dr. Francis Rahn, Chairperson of the National Competitive and Productivity Council, moderated by our colleague, Chief Economist at the IIA, Dan O'Brien, to respond to the Minister's address and share their own perspectives on the white paper. And then we hopefully will have some time for discussion in a Q&A session. So thank you all once again to our speakers for being here to you for attending and in particular to Minister Simon Coveney for being with us this morning. I want to hand over to Dan, for instance, to introduce the panel. Thank you all. Thank you. Good. Well, look, Alex, I think you've introduced the panel and I think most of the issues have been dealt with. Let me just brief housekeeping thing. The minister and welcome will speak for about 20 minutes. Our discussants will speak for about five. You can join the conversation. For those of you who are joining online, you can put your questions online. I'm looking at a screen in front of me here. So please just identify yourself when you do so. And members of the audience here in person can do the same. We're on a very tight schedule this morning. So with that, without further ado, let me welcome the minister in hand straight over. Thank you, Minister Coveney. Morning, everybody. So those of you who are here and have braved the weather and those of you who are in probably more comfortable surroundings watching online. Thank you for for giving me and us your time to the ambassadors that are here as well, two good friends of mine, actually, from from countries with a lot in common with Ireland, even though other parts of the world, New Zealand and Canada. And thank you to Alex for for the introduction and the work that you're doing here. And for all who are working at the IEA, I'm really pleased to have an opportunity to speak again. It's good to be back. I've had the pleasure of speaking here on several occasions as Minister of Foreign Affairs and have been looking forward to joining you once again as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Now, this time to speak on the government's White Paper and Enterprise, which some might be surprised to hear is also very much linked to foreign policy because so much of enterprise policy now and the the complexity of running a business is impacted by by world affairs. I'm delighted to be joined on the panel also today by by Dana Brian, who all of you will know, Chief Economist at the IEA, Martina Fitzgerald, who I think you will also know as CEO of Skale Ireland and, of course, Dr. Francis Rowan, chairperson of the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, who are doing important work. I'm very much looking forward to their perspectives on the White Paper and the government's approach towards business and enterprise, which, of course, needs to constantly evolve and modernize. Well, when Ireland's economic recovery plan was published back in June 2021, government had set the target of exceeding pre-COVID employment levels, targeting two and a half million people at work by 2024. This target was achieved by the end of 2021, which stands as a testament to the strength and resilience of Ireland's enterprise sector, in spite of the challenges that have created and continue to create significant headwinds and disruption across the global economy. It's been a hugely challenging period by any standards. Businesses in Ireland have been impacted by geopolitical turbulence from the ongoing impact of war in Ukraine and, of course, the extraordinary human suffering that flows from that, but also business and trade disruption, tensions between global power blocks, tension between the US and China has rarely been as intense and negative as it is today. Globalization retreating in truth, the effects of stubborn inflation and supply chain disruption, accelerating climate change pressures. And we've seen that in a very real terms this year. Continued fluctuations in energy markets and ongoing impacts of Brexit and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which hasn't fully gone away. Policy in the US, China and the EU is increasingly motivated by industrial policy concerns relating to strategic autonomy, national security considerations and a desire for self-reliance for key technology inputs such as semiconductors and net zero technologies is also driving policy change. I note that the IEA has made known its valuable contribution in this area, has made its own valuable contribution in this area, including through the IEA Global Europe paper by Dylan Marshall earlier this year, which was welcome. On the upside, inflation is now beginning to abate as energy costs fall, although not at a pace that we would like. Central Bank is predicting the growth in the domestic economy will be 3.7 percent this year, which is slightly stronger than previously anticipated, but that figure, of course, can still change. And while there have been some very unwelcome job losses in our globalized technology sector this year, it is important to put these strains in context. Overall job losses in big tech in Ireland represent about 2 percent of employment in that tech sector here, which is a fraction of the growth delivered over the last five years or so. Today, we've more people at work than ever before. Female participation in the workforce is at an all time high and youth unemployment remains relatively low and continuing to fall. So there is no doubt that the economy remains in strong health. We have a strong macroeconomic and fiscal position, sound institutions and a supportive business environment. Our job in government, though, is to ensure that we maintain all of these gains and that we make ambitious plans for the future in the face of uncertainty, the kind of uncertainty that I mentioned earlier. In that context, it's vital that we deliver a strong enterprise focused budget in a few weeks time. But while budget 2024 is being framed against a backdrop of a healthy economy, it must also strike a balance between the need to invest in public services and support living standards without committing expenditure based on income that is not guaranteed in the future. And of course, it must continue to support the engine that funds it all. One of the prime one of the primary areas of focus for my own department in the budget will be to support decarbonization and digitalization of enterprise across the country. We're working closely with Enterprise Ireland to get the supports right. We'll also focus on promoting entrepreneurial activity in the domestic economy and ensure that Ireland remains a preferred location for international investors in the context of the agreed changes to cooperation tax rates from January the 1st under the new OECD pillar two commitments. I want to further develop measures also to assist with scaling of Irish based firms, ensuring that entrepreneurs and founders are awarded for their efforts and risk taking. Improving the equity landscape for all businesses and incentivizing the growth of angel investment in Ireland is also a conversation that we're having with the Department of Finance. Ireland's enterprise policy will remain committed to pursuing the core elements that have served our economy well for so long, investing in our people and welcoming talent to our shores from other parts of the world, promoting a stable and attractive tax offering, political stability, a pro business environment and widespread public buy in for our economic model as a small advanced economy at the heart of the European Union, but very much connected to other parts of the world. With these goals in mind, the White Paper and Enterprise remains as relevant now as when it was developed last year with the aim of ensuring that Irish based enterprise can succeed through competitive advantage founded on sustainability, innovation and productivity, delivering rewarding jobs and livelihoods for everyone. To achieve this, we are focusing on seven priority enterprise policy objectives that are identified in the White Paper for those of you who've read it, covering decarbonisation and digital transformation, FDI and trade, the indigenous exporting and local trading sectors, innovation and building on our existing strengths, which are many. Decarbonisation is not only an environmental necessity for the future, it is now an economic and competitiveness one as well. Ireland can be proud of the steps we've taken on the journey to net zero and we are continuing to work on converting our ambition into action. There's a lot more work still to do. Our commitment to climate neutrality by 2050, the introduction of carbon budgets, the establishment of the sectoral emission ceilings and the implementation of climate action plans to meet these targets are all critical steps towards decarbonising our society as well as our economy. With these commitments, the White Paper broadly aligns with the objectives and ambition of the EU's Green Deal Industrial Plan and the Net Zero Industrial Act, which plays decarbonisation and climate change as key drivers and determinants of industrial policy. We now know the climate and the environment are now central to competitiveness and business success, as well as, of course, a moral imperative. The green transition moving towards a cleaner energy system and protecting ecosystems is something Ireland must deliver. And in my view, only public-private and government-business partnership can deliver on the scale that's needed. We have natural competitive advantage on renewable energy and we must use it with a level of ambition that has never previously been adopted. A maritime area approximately nine times the size of our landmass and a powerful wind resource can not only deliver climate targets but transform economic development and energy security over the coming decades. That's why I'm developing a National Industrial Strategy for Offshore Wind that will look to maximise the economic opportunity from both a supply chain and industrial demand perspective associated with our overall target of harnessing 37 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2050. This is a hugely exciting plan in terms of impact and many have compared it with the level of ambition in the 1920s when the state set about building Arden Crusher. Digital technologies will play a major role in shaping global competitiveness and productivity over the coming decades. And Ireland is well placed to be at the fore in harnessing the opportunities of rapid developments in AI, machine learning, quantum computing, and many other emerging technologies. Digitalisation and innovation will also be critical in decoupling economic growth from emissions. Digital transformation is opening up new opportunities in areas such as green technology, sustainable product design, green finance and digital services. To grasp the opportunities of digital technology and business we must sustain Ireland's attractiveness as a location of choice for cutting edge global technology businesses and drive a step change in digital adoption across enterprise especially SMEs across the country. We want 90% of SMEs to have achieved basic digital intensity by 2030 and we will help realise that ambition through our multi-annual digital transition fund designed to help companies at all stages of their digital journey. We also want to nurture digital startups and ensure a modern cohesive and well-resourced regulatory framework for digital. Ireland is coming from one of the strongest positions in Europe to take advantage of the digital opportunity that's there. Placing fifth in the EU digital economy and society index for 2022 but certainly with an aspiration to get up into the top three. In reality however we are aware that the digital economy is running at two speeds and this is something that the white paper needs to work to address. Some larger companies in particular and in the multinational sector are very much at the cutting edge in this space. Many of our SMEs are not yet and we need to help them get there. Despite the increasingly challenging nature of the global trading environment Ireland has enhanced its status as a safe competitive location to build and sustain global business. If anything geopolitical tension and brexit fallout have reinforced that position in recent years. The IDA's performance in the first half of this year attracting 139 new investments with a strong regional footprint is remarkable and that represents well over 12,000 new jobs linked to those projects and it's worth noting 52% of those projects were companies investing in Ireland for the very first time. As global competition for foreign direct investment intensifies the white paper seeks to ensure that Ireland remains agile and ambitious in ensuring that our value proposition remains amongst the best in the world and we will continue to champion the open rules-based free trade model that has underpinned our economic success for decades now. To that end we'll continue to ensure that Ireland is embedded in global supply chains, we'll strengthen linkages between our far-known multinationals and SMEs by developing more collaborative enterprise ecosystems and we will prioritise sustainability as a key consideration in promoting Ireland as a climate friendly and sustainable business environment for the future that guarantees not only lower emissions but also energy security in terms of supply. We must also continue to cultivate greater linkages between industry and the higher and further education sectors as well as developing the joined up approach to grow the base of RD&I activity relative to industry, relevant to industry and society for the future. There's a lot of good work going on in that space now led by Simon Harris in particular. Our trade and investment strategy will seek to ensure that our business friendly open economy is positioned to benefit from the network of EU-free trade agreements and new trade opportunities that develop and with that in mind I certainly want to see Ireland ratify Zeta to ensure that we can bed down the benefits of the growing trading relationship between Ireland and Canada and of course the new opportunities that are developing between the EU and New Zealand as well in the back of a recent trade deal done there. Ensuring the Irish-owned exporting sector can fulfil its potential in becoming a sustainable diversified domestic engine for growth is a key component of our enterprise policy approach too. We've set the ambition of expanding our exporting base with 2,000 additional exporting companies and 50% more large Irish exporting companies by 2030 and of course Enterprise Ireland are central to that challenge. To accomplish this we'll focus on enhancing productivity especially for SMEs and developing an integrated system-wide approach to accelerating startup growth and scaling. The extension of the local enterprise office mandate to work with prospective exporters that have grown to over 10 and up to 50 employees for example will bridge an existing gap and better integrate Irish enterprise into the scaling loop. Government will work on our ambition to grow the number of at-scale Irish firms and new exporters to ensure that businesses can grow and prosper and become effectively Irish-owned multinationals in the future but in order to do that they need finance and they need the capacity to grow at scale. Enterprise Ireland will remain an anchor investor providing public equity finance and we will build on the success of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland and provide targeted access to finance for SMEs in green and digital developments in particular. In an effort to further develop our locally traded sectors we'll continue to work through the local enterprise offices to nurture and develop local businesses enabling them to thrive and provide growth and employment opportunities across our cities and towns and communities throughout the country. Government will continue to support our entrepreneurs through the taxation system access to finance measures as well as grant supports and I think we need to improve some of those sectors in the upcoming budget. My department Enterprise Ireland and the local enterprise offices will increasingly focus on tapping into Ireland's non-exporting SMEs so we can continue Ireland's success story in serving regional and global markets from here. Innovation is an essential driver for any enterprise and for the Irish economy as a whole and crucial for generating competitive sustainable long-term productivity growth. I fully appreciate that enterprises in Ireland and the talent they foster are driving the emergence of new and often disruptive products services and business models across diverse areas from financial services to healthcare to education and more besides. In line with the ambition set out in the government's impact 2030 strategy we will build upon progress made within the innovation space and redouble efforts to broaden and deepen innovation capabilities across Ireland's enterprise sector particularly the innovation performance of our SMEs. Government strategy is focusing on a number of areas to step up enterprise innovation including bolstering collaboration across the innovation ecosystems along with achieving ambitious research development and investment targets for IDA and building partnerships to boost our innovation capacity. We will invest further into the disruptive technologies innovation fund and build on place-based strengths through our smart specialization strategy in order to address ecosystems gaps and improve innovation and enterprise performance across all regions. In simple speak we'll try to ensure that regions can play to their strengths and we'll invest in those. The white paper commits to increasing our overall expenditure on research and development to 2.5 percent of modified gross national income by 2030 but the ambition to position Ireland as an innovation leader on a European innovation scorecard. We'll also continue our efforts around the target of doubling business expenditure on research and development by 2030. Finally the white paper seeks to ensure that Ireland's distinctive areas of competitive advantage expertise and potential are further realized with a focus both on existing sectors of strength as well as new and emerging sectors of relevance. A critical component in this effort will lie in clustering. Ireland has a young but rapidly evolving cluster landscape that has developed in response to industry demands with the support and involvement of a variety of state agencies through national and EU funding. We'll further develop this good work recognizing the important role clustering has to play in building upon existing sectoral and technological strengths and in realizing emerging areas of opportunity and growth. If you take somewhere like the Shannon Estuary for example where over the next 10 to 15 to 20 years we will see extraordinary infrastructure development in my view out of the Shannon Estuary based on renewable infrastructure offshore with a very significant amount of power coming onshore. I think we're likely to build a whole cluster of new enterprise activity around that geographical area on the back of that natural competitive advantage which is about 500 square kilometers of deep sheltered water that will become a place where enormous wind farms are assembled and created whether they be floating or fixed and that's just one example but there are many others where certain regions in Ireland have natural competitive advantage where we can build significant clusters of growth and activity. Cork is another one as by the end of 2025 we'll have the Celtic Interconnector with France which I think will along with the other energy capacity coming out of Cork which is currently about 30% of the country's energy generation will build will build out new clusters based on that energy growth capacity. In this effort my department has committed to developing a national clustering program which will fund five national cluster organizations by 2025 so it's not just about picking the right regions it's also about picking the right sectors and industries in terms of those clustering efforts. In addition to clustering we'll work to deliver balanced regional growth through a coherent policy approach to enterprise needs in every part of the country through the local enterprise offices and ongoing initiatives such as our smart specialization strategy and the implementation of our nine regional enterprise plans we will continue to drive collaboration initiatives that can help strengthen the regional enterprise ecosystem in some areas it's already really strong in other areas we can strengthen it further. While implementation of the white paper will focus on progressing the seven enterprise priority objectives we must also ensure the economy has the necessary carrying capacity to sustain a competitive enterprise environment and the pace of growth that we've seen in recent years this will be achieved through other government strategies like project Ireland 2024 housing for all and other initiatives more homes need to be built we know that but more homes are being built 30 000 built last year which is more than 40 up on the previous year in 2021. Recent CSO figures show a continuation of this trend during 2023 with completions planning permissions and commencements all up but we know we still have an awful lot of work to do in terms of responding to housing pressures which is fundamentally about a supply meeting demand challenge as well as a whole range of other things linked to housing that the government continues to prioritize and is working on. Government also maintains a commitment to driving substantial investment in overcoming other constraints in areas such as transport infrastructure energy water and climate adaptation at five percent now of modified gross national income our national development plan investment is now well above the european average we're spending over 12 billion euros a year on capital investment for the future i can remember a time when we were spending a fraction of that that's why my overriding concern in this and future budgets is never allow is to never allow the country to move back into the space of a boom and bust cycle where the country literally runs out of money and what we have to do in response to that is literally stop virtually all capital expenditure until we can afford to do it again that is no way to run a country or an economy and we know the kind of havoc that that wreaked on Ireland 15 15 years ago or more when we had to rely on the IMF in terms of emergency funding given the resources that Ireland has today the talent we have and the experience we have over the last number of decades putting together budgets like the one that is just going to take place in a few weeks time needs to ensure that we put enough money and resources aside to make sure that that we plan for the future in a responsible way while at the same time responding to today's demands which are many from from families from households and from businesses in conclusion through the white paper and enterprise the government has sought to ensure that we build on these strong foundations already in place and that Irish Enterprise and Ireland's workforce can leverage the abundance of ingenuity creativity and resources at the disposal at its disposal to overcome the challenges and realize the opportunities facing us today the opportunities and challenges are both significant but also exciting in May of this year my department published the first consecutive two-year implementation plan of cross-government activity to implement the white papers commitments reporting on the progress made against the 40 key initiatives contained within its first implementation plan will occur by annually with the first of these reports currently under development and due to be finalized very shortly so I look forward to updating you on progress as as it's as it's completed and in the meantime thanks once again for giving me an opportunity to outline to you the the core pillars if you like of enterprise policy today which I think can serve us very well into the future without a strong economy without a strong enterprise sector much of the other things that the government wants to and needs to do are simply unaffordable and often in Irish political debate there's not enough discussion on how we create the wealth that can actually generate the support that government needs to to spend to support vulnerable people to to to look after the well-being of society and support families households and businesses in the way that we need to in difficult times that's my job and we're very focused on doing that so thanks very much and I look forward to any questions or comments that people might have thank you minister I think the sheer number of issues you touched on there illustrates the complexity of enterprise policy that's also in the case and I suppose these days with security and issues around reducing emissions there are very difficult trade-offs as well involved in developing enterprise policy so let me go to our two respondents in this discussions today Martina Fitzgerald is the CEO of Scale Ireland and a non-profit organization representing the Irish tech startup and scaling companies and Francis Moran who is amongst other things the chair of the national competitors and productivity council so you have a few minutes of prepared remarks and also if you have any questions on the basis of what the minister said just now please feel free to put them to get the conversations going Martina well first of all I want to welcome the minister's continuing endorsement of the indigenous tech sector since he assumed the ministry and this is not the first room that I've been in that he has spoke so strongly in terms of support for indigenous tech startups as scaling companies and we welcome the ambition of the government in the white paper and in relation to making Ireland an innovation leader we also welcome the targets 20% increase in high potential startups and by 2024 and a doubling of those large exporting companies indigenous companies because Ireland has a very low rate of SMEs engaged in exporting activities compared to many countries in Europe which was highlighted by the OECD and all of our members Scale Ireland's members with their FinTech, CleanTech, AgriTech, EdTech they're all export orientated from the beginning and they have global ambitions so we welcome those targets and obviously what will be key is the implementation we also see Terence here in the audience today and we welcome him and he has finished his tenure as chair of Enterprise Ireland but we do welcome the ambition of Enterprise Ireland that Neil Clancy had said that he would like to see this sector over the next 25 years of Enterprise Ireland's time this sector becoming a prime driver of our economic growth and that very much aligns with what's happening in Europe we are very supportive of the European startup nation standards the best practices for indigenous tech startups and scaling companies I'm now a member of the advisory board of the new agency that's going to drive that forward and we've been part of all the roadmaps on indigenous and tech sectors across Europe because it is a strategic it's important and a European level they realize that this is going to drive jobs innovation and employment and exports and I think the roadmap in terms of my paper is very much recognizing that so I first of all want to say that and also recognize all the government's support for the sector in recent budgets and so forth now we are having this conversation and the now we are having this conversation that unfortunately Ireland over the last little while has been slipping back and some of the global rankings in terms of innovation I think the latest one is going to be published today the results of which we don't know but that is a concern and that has been happening because other countries are also recognizing the strategic nature of this sector and we have to be very mindful of that I do think the white paper provides a good roadmap on what we have to do not only in meeting those targets but we do have to increase our spending in research and development and there's a very good target there 2.5% of national gross income by 2030 that is imperative it also sets out that it supports targeted schemes in terms of promoting entrepreneurship investment and also the retaining and recruitment of staff in the sector because they are global jobs so we support all that but what we do need to see is a greater uptake of those schemes and the white paper has given us a very strong I suppose recommendation that enterprise and we would believe that you would be a champion and with finance of perhaps looking at these schemes and seeing what we could do to to increase that uptake and I know Mr you get that a lot so it would be wrong of me not to mention it today but overall what are we talking about we're talking about supporting entrepreneurs that's where I'm going to end my contribution on we're talking about the founders of herd watch which the minister would have met and last week or before the planning championship that compiled millions of records on herds or food leather are tackling through their tech solution food wastage or kill to an early stage startup that's got funding to deal with you know encryption of child abuse images or news whip that's dealing with disinformation AMCS a massive company in in limberick or urgent the biggest Irish med tech employing hundreds in go it started over a butcher shop 20 years ago and now is a global leader and teamwork so we have to match their ambition and I think if implemented this white paper gives us the roadmap and I think it's really important that we stay focused on that particularly given those global rankings. Thanks Martina your point about the low rate of exporting indigenous companies you know I never like to rain on anybody's parade but I think we do have to recognize that the indigenous entrepreneurial sector is not as strong as maybe it should be and historically maybe that's the reason for pre-globalization period the current period of globalization our economic performance wasn't as good as it might have been to say the least and we need to always sort of maintain a focus on that that can be improved. Frances over to you. First of all thank you for the minister for giving us such a strong overview of the paper and when the enterprise paper came out I read it and I have to say I wasn't lit up with excitement and difference and actually I was very pleased I wasn't lit up with excitement and difference because we've had consistency in the evolution of our strategy over 30 or 40 years so the last thing you want actually are big surprises what we've had is consistent evolution and some of the themes that the minister talked about I think are very important there so I'm wearing my my competitors council hat on so I want to tell you that we're releasing 125 pages of an exciting competitiveness challenge tomorrow but when it was noted by the cabinet yesterday the minister will have seen it but a lot of the issues that he touched on here or there and the whole point about competitors approach is you take a medium approach and then you look back to see is this budget aligned with where the medium term strategy is going and the most important thing for economic growth when you look back at it over the years it's the gradual consistent steps that government makes and stays with that actually drive change and drive growth it's not the sudden exciting small things which can be really very exciting on the day but actually they're not they're not the big drivers so where are we in terms of of of the the the issues that you raised in the in the from the from the enterprise strategy I think the focus on the ecosystem is really important it's been talked about since not God was a child certainly since I was in my 30s and I don't think we've ever taken it seriously as we have now so I see the evolution this time as being a more strengthening of that particular step and why is that important because the ecosystem is about where innovation takes place and because we didn't develop the ecosystem it was the 1990s when government policies nests in particular started to talk about the ecosystem it became important but I think it's moved forward now and there's much more joined up in us in terms of the or dni and the link between that and innovation between that and exports and that and growth so all these things are interconnected and what matters is that they work in a very systematic way so I would see that focus in the on the ecosystem has been important development I think the clustering that's been mentioned is also there clustering works when it's real not when it's being forced on a system and it has to understand the environment in which it's operating one of the things I would say having been around the block for so long is that place is now back in industrial policy so you mentioned that minister in the context of of them of the the growth outside Dublin of where ideas plants are going enterprise Ireland can't force people to locate their businesses in different places they're going to locate them where the entrepreneur is living and that's as it should be that's as it is everywhere but I think it's very important that that we do understand the importance of place and it comes for me with the national planning framework which we brought out a number of years ago which is now there so that the idea in enterprise Ireland can say to people look this is what government is planning with regard to the development of our cities I'm old enough to remember the publication of Buchanan report in 1968 and actually the national planning framework is basically Buchanan plus 50 years and an opportunity now to basically make sure that growth is right throughout the country isn't overly concentrated in the east coast and isn't overly concentrated in a way of making congestion and crowding so what are the important things for me in terms of the enterprise strategy I think it's really important that we get our head around the big infrastructure decisions I'm delighted to see the minister taking that particularly out that notion of there are very very important strategic decisions government must be able to make them it must ask itself do we have the policy expertise in order to be able to make it how do we get that policy expertise but in relation particular to wind and solar and all of these particular strategies they require more of a role for government than actually our industrial strategy has involved in the past where we went for the kind of global position of attracting good companies strong companies who fitted in with being an island so I think that that issue of having something at the center of government that's looking at these big capital expenditures make sure they're going in the right way and reinforcing the ecosystem energy is pivotal with a chapter in this year's competitive support on energy again we've done it over a number of years because we've seen sustainability of supply has been really important with a chapter this year on innovation because we actually see Martina made reference to the the situation with regard to the innovation indices and actually in the next year we've started work already on making sure that the innovation the global innovation indices are appropriate to Ireland because some of them don't work because of our GDP issues in terms of the measurements of output within the economy but it is an important one to be to be very conscious of innovation has basically been mainstreamed in economic growth nothing happens without innovation and we were we were slower off the blocks we didn't start to invest in in R&D at a very serious level in the universities until I'd say 1999 it's about the starting point what was there beforehand was really really small scale it's gone up and up and up and I think it's great to actually have a minister now who's got that responsibility and that responsibility to work minister with your department in terms of where the two pieces come together those two pieces of the jigsaw if they don't mesh are not are not are not going to work so I'm I'm optimistic to think that we can actually make some you know strong evolution not a discontinuity in terms of the evolution path of economic growth for the country yes disruptive in terms of some of the new technologies we want to bring in and that's super super stuff but I would be very strongly minded that what you mentioned minister in terms of reporting on how other government departments are supporting the enterprise strategy that really matters and just to give you just a end up on a final point I mean the devil is in the detail with a lot of these things so for example how R&D credits are operated matter is that the Oslo manual this is the Prescott manual these things matter on the ground and if they're not there you can end up having a lot of incentives but the take-up being much lower so I think listening to what SMEs and leading-sized industries other and FDI in some instances have to say about what we have in place is really important so I stopped there thank you