123 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the support, if any, his Department provides to Irish inventors. [20088/96]

My Department provides support to Irish inventors through the State agency, Forbairt. The intellectual property unit in Forbairt operates the inventions assistance scheme which provides inventors with general advice on protection, development and commercialisation of inventions and funding for patent applications. Forbairt also operates a number of schemes, some on behalf of the office of science and technology, which is part of my Department, which support research, development and other forms of innovation. These schemes can be categorised as, first, support for research and development and technology transfer in firms; and second, funding for research in third level colleges.

With a view to minimising the financial burden on small inventors and enterprises, the fees payable to the Patents Office, which comes under the aegis of the Department, to obtain short-term patents have been set at specially low levels. Most of the regular fees payable to the Patents Office are only half those prescribed for full term patents.