Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

If one looks at Food Health Ireland, one will see there is an alignment to a number of academic institutions. The reason why it works here is because we have cross-collaboration between different academic institutions. There can be more than one academic institution mapped on to a theme, which is normally the case. If one looks at Teagasc in Moorpark or Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre in University College Cork, one can see that a number of State entities and a number of different and competing industrial partners are involved in that. There is a mechanism to allow them to share knowledge, which is arguably a better model because it results in greater economic activity for Ireland at the end of the day. Most companies will already have research arms with their parent companies. The model we have in Ireland is one of Government collaborating with industry and it works.