News
Innovation Fund Ireland investment in Polaris welcomed
16 December 10
The Taoiseach said “I would like to welcome Polaris to Ireland. I am delighted that they are locating their new Dogpatch Labs Europe facility in Dublin. This is an exciting initiative for Ireland, and important to our ambitions for growth and jobs.”
“This is the first such facility outside the United States. The Dublin lab will be open plan space housing over 30 teams working on new businesses.”
“Attracting this facility is a significant coup for Ireland. I believe it will help us bring people from around Europe to start their companies in Dublin.”
The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O’Keeffe TD, said this second investment under Innovation Fund Ireland by the National Pensions Reserve Fund, along with the strong response to Enterprise Ireland’s call for expressions of interest, shows our ambition in establishing the fund was justified.
‘Innovation Fund Ireland will help transform our investor environment by establishing top-tier international venture capital funds and networks which will, in turn, create new enterprises and high-quality sustainable jobs for our people,’ said Minister O’Keeffe.
The Taoiseach also called for a review of EU copyright legislation, saying that “we need to examine the balance between the rights holder and the consumer, to ensure that our innovative companies operating in the digital environment are not disadvantaged against competitors.”
“As well as encouraging such a review at European level, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation will also be reviewing our domestic application of copyright legislation to identify any changes we should make within the existing EU framework.”
The Taoiseach also outlined significant progress on implementation of the Innovation Taskforce Report. “We have made really good progress since March. Just to give a few examples:
- all our universities have now agreed to introduce bonus points for maths starting with the Leaving Certificate in 2012
- the IDA has developed a new Programme to attract fast-growing companies to locate their European HQ in Ireland
- Enterprise Ireland has introduced enhanced seed and angel funding arrangements for innovative start-ups
- the High Potential Start Up programme is being accelerated
- the PRTLI programme of investment in third level research infrastructure is being rolled out
- an expert group will shortly finalise reforms of our Intellectual Property system, including development of a national protocol for ownership and access to State-supported IP
- Enterprise Ireland is launching a campaign to attract overseas entrepreneurs to locate in Ireland
- improved visa arrangements are being introduced by the Department of Justice
- an exercise is underway, chaired by Jim O’Hara from Intel, to ensure that research funding is more targeted on strategic areas of national importance,
- and a pilot Flagship initiative in the Silvertech area is included in the National Recovery Plan.”