June 2004

The National Competitiveness Council squats on the website of Forfás, the national innovation agency – www.forfas.ie/ncc. You can download the annual competiveness reports back to 1998, as well as policy statements on such enterprise-related topics as social partnership, infrastructure and inflation, at www.forfas.ie/ncc/reports.html.

The Forfás site is also the portal for the Science Foundation Ireland, www.science.ie (highlight – an amateur rocket-building competition) and the biotech sector information site www.biotechinfo.ie.

Enterprise Ireland – www.enterprise-ireland.ie – has the job of “helping Irish companies to grow in world markets”. The site is a one-stop shop for business owners looking for tips on start-up help, finance,export avenues … or even wanting to take part in an EU-funded research project. One of its tools to promote the local economy is Source Ireland, a database in which you can search for Irish firms to supply your needs.

Overseas companies looking to set up in the country can find help from IDA Ireland (www.idaireland.com) which has responsibility for securing new overseas investment in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sectors. More than 1,000 overseas businesses have already chosen Ireland as their European base.

The Irish Presidency site at /ireland reports on policy developments including those at May’s Competitiveness Council, which reached agreement on ‘computer implemented inventions’, though it tragically failed to do so on the Community Patent.