Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Horan for the work she has done to date and wish her well in her new appointment. The big question I have to ask relates to research and development and her view on it in this country. There is a lack of co-ordination. The HSE, for example, does not have any person in charge of research. It is an organisation with 100,000 people that is providing medical care for the entire country and there is no head of research. I tabled a Commencement matter recently in the Seanad seeking that someone would be put in charge of research and development. The reason I did it is because a large food company in this country did not have anyone in charge of research and put someone in place. The person now has a budget of €20 million for innovation and development. That is because the private sector is able to respond far more quickly whereas the public sector seems to have a problem responding and planning for change.

It might not relate to Ms Horan’s role but given that she is coming from the private sector and much of the research and development taking place affects the public sector, especially the health care area, how does she envisage the development of the private sector working with the health care sector in conjunction with the university sector? How does she envisage that evolving and how can we work towards getting all those three sectors together in order to be far more innovative and productive in what we achieve? One of the downfalls in this country is that we do not have the required level of co-ordination. I was in China a number of years ago to look at how research is carried out. The industry, the university sector and government agencies all work together but here everyone goes off in a different direction.

The sectors can help one another, but this is not happening. How does Ms Horan see this developing in her role? It is an extremely important thing that we need to do in this country.