The Conferring address was given by Mr Ned Costello, Chief Executive, Irish Universities Association. In his address, Mr Costello said that one of UCC’s great successes was to demonstrate that resources invested in university-based research produced postgraduates with the type of skills and acumen which companies wanted, and that investment would follow those skills.

He referred to the national Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation (SSTI) which shows the Government’s commitment to building a world-class research base in Ireland and paid tribute to Minister Micheál Martin for securing both the strategy and resources to go with it.

“Ireland is now one of the richest countries in the world” said Mr Costello. “Ireland has been extraordinarily fortunate in the past decade and a half. Global credit expansion, unprecedented low interest rates, positive demographics and an associated construction boom have all given an enormous shot in the arm to our growth rates. This unusual confluence has conspired to create a pool of benign circumstances favouring growth. It should also be acknowledged that our recent success has also been predicated on some important public policy choices. These included the period of correction in the public finances in the run-up to EMU, wide scale reform of business and labour taxes, and effective use of the EU structural funds to kick start initiatives in areas such as research” said Mr Costello.

Mr Costello said another of those policy choices was the more recent decision to invest heavily in research. He continued: “A key target is to see that enterprise spending on R&D more than doubles by 2013. This is central in the drive to turn Ireland from a country which is excellent at producing products and services based on imported ideas to one where those products and services derive from ideas generated here. In our globalised world, physical and financial capital is very mobile. Intellectual capital is much less so and is the dominant source of competitive advantage today. Innovation rather than speculation holds the key to our future prosperity.”

Mr Costello concluded by referring to the benefits which investment in our universities brings.  “In your future lives, you have the opportunity to use the experiences gained here in UCC to build a better Ireland and to act as advocates for research and education.”

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