Towards 2016 - Department of Taoiseach

CHAPTER INorth/South Co-operation and ReconciliationFollowing on from the preliminary consultation between the Government and social partners on theNorth/South Consultative Forum, a further consultation meeting took place on 29 January, 2008.CHAPTER 11Enhancing Ireland’s Competitive Advantage in a Changing World Economy andBuilding Sustainable Social and Economic DevelopmentStrategy for Science, Technology and InnovationSimplifying the R&D Grants SchemeThe revised schemes have been drawn up and were launched in January 2008. They are beingimplemented by the IDA and Enterprise Ireland from the beginning of 2008.Better RegulationProgress during the period on Better Regulation included the commencement of a review of theOperation of Regulatory Impact Analysis which is expected to be completed shortly.Review of the Economic Regulatory EnvironmentTenders for an independent review of the Economic Regulatory Environment, focusing on the keyeconomic sectors of communication, energy, transport, financial services and health and safety arecurrently being assessed and it is expected that the review will commence in March 2008.Knowledge SocietyWork is ongoing on a new Knowledge Society Action Plan.A National Advisory Panel (NAP) has been formed to support the work of the Futures Ireland project.A Consultative Panel has been created with over 140 members who met in December 2007 and January2008. An International Expert Panel has also been established to meet in February and April 2008.The Futures Ireland website (www.futuresireland.ie) contains a number of papers and presentationssetting out the motivation and logic of the project, which is due for completion in early Autumn 2008.Manufacturing SectorIn 2008, FÁS has been given an additional €1.7m and Skillnets an additional €2.9m for programmesfor upskilling those in employment.Framework R&D Programme Support StructuresBased on the work undertaken by the National Director of Framework Programme 7 (FP7), the totalshare of Community funding to be targeted by Ireland over the lifetime of FP7 (2007 to 2013) has beenincreased to €600m from an SSTI target of €400m. The new target was approved by the CabinetCommittee on STI. First reporting against this target will commence in 2008.International Selling ProgrammeThe International Selling Programme is Enterprise Ireland's gold standard export sales developmentprogramme, designed to yield measurable results and help Irish companies win more internationalsales. Based on the success of the 2007 programme, in 2008, to meet client company demand, theProgramme has been expanded and will be delivered in two locations –Dublin(2) and Cork(1).1