P.R. stunt by Cowen & Co.?

Up to €500m is to be invested by the Govt in a new venture fund, to be known as Innovation Fund Ireland, which will support early stage research and development. The announcement was made at the launch of what the Government calls 'Building Ireland's Smart Economy: A Framework for Sustainable Economic Renewal' . Under the renewal programme, multinationals will also be encouraged to engage in 'innovative high value activity and technological convergence' which will provide quality jobs.

Minister for Health, Mary Harney said the plan required a national effort like that in the mid-1980s when she said the country 'nearly went under'. The renewal programme also introduces a plan to drive entrepreneurship and business start-ups by introducing what the Government calls 'highly favourable taxation measures'. These include a three year exemption from Corporation Tax for these new businesses.

Responding to the announcement, business group ISME said it was dismayed, calling the plan 'vague, bereft of ideas; deficient in specifics, measurements and timeframe.' Fine Gael spokesperson on Finance Richard Bruton criticised the Government’s plan saying: ‘For all the benign aspiration in the document today it is worth recognising that you can’t build a smart economy based on dumb decisions.’ It was also dismissed as a PR exercise by Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore. In the Daíl this morning Deputy Gilmore pointed to the fact that the announcement was not going to be made in the Houses of the Oireachtas, but in Dublin Castle. Referring to Transport 21 and the National Development Plan, he said that documents launched in the Castle are not worth the paper they are written on. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said that members have been left without any information on the plan, and that was contemptuous treatment of the House. He said his understanding of the framework is that it is 'high on vision and low on specific ideas'.