Businesses are urged to apply for funds

Limerick businesses are being encouraged to apply for funding under a revised and simplified Research and Development Grant Scheme launched by Enterprise Minister Micheal Martin.

Limerick West TD John Cregan said that the newly launched scheme would make €500m available for research and development funding to companies across all sectors.

"The funding will be made available over the remainder of the Government's Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation (2008-2013) and will see job creation agencies, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, invest more than €500 million, which will used to support R&D and continue to secure jobs in all parts of the country, Deputy Cregan told the Limerick Independent.

The new grant scheme will also be streamlined to make the application process as straightforward as possible for companies, according to Deputy Cregan who added that Ireland had developed a reputation as being a top location for groundbreaking research. "Company-to-company collaborations and partnerships between our third level institutions and companies are at the core of this. Projects already underway are researching how to combat disease, improve communication technology and develop products of the future," he said.

"This approach to producing high-quality R&D ensures that Ireland remains a base for high tech quality jobs in the years ahead. I am delighted that this new scheme encourages R&D collaboration between companies, particularly amongst small businesses," Deputy Cregan said. "I would like to encourage Limerick companies of all sizes and from all sectors to use this opportunity to check if they are geared up for the challenges of the future, and to examine if they can qualify for Government support for R&D projects."

Deputy Neville condemns 'rip off' of services

Fine Gael spokesman on mental health and Limerick West deputy, Dan Neville, has condemned the Fianna Fáil/PD Government for "ripping off" the psychiatric services of valuable lands while depriving them of "desperately needed budget increases".

Deputy Neville said that the Government had performed the ultimate u-turn on its own 'A Vision for Change' policy.

"I have called on numerous occasions for the assets released from the sale of psychiatric institution sites to be ring-fenced for mental health services but the Government has turned a deaf ear. The Irish Psychiatric Association report has now confirmed that millions of euro from the sale of such lands has been siphoned off while the psychiatric services are ripped off," he said.

"On top of that we have budget stasis where the mental health services are concerned with Budget 2008 failing to deliver the €25 million in annual funding for the implementation of 'A Vision for Change'. No wonder the Mental Health Minister Jimmy Devins did not even release a statement on Budget Day, especially since only half of that funding was actually spent on psychiatric services in 2007."

Deputy Neville said that the report "shows up the fallacy of the co-location project with the transfer of services from St Ita's in Portrane to Beaumont shelved in favour of an unproven, unpopular project which is not backed by any cost-benefit analysis".

He said it was a classic example of "public land being hived off to private developers while public services suffer due to a lack of space for essential expansion".

The constant campaigner for mental health services added that the report's mentioning of the "stigma and discrimination where psychiatric services are concerned" showed how the Government has "changed things for the worse by ripping off the psychiatric services and crippling them through chronic under-funding".