John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will take as many questions as I can. I ask the Deputy to come back to me if I miss any questions. On the issue of funding for basic scientific research, statistical evidence for the academic year 2012-13 shows that 50.9% of the total higher education research and development budget was on basic research, which has shown very little change. My Department provides Science Foundation Ireland with its annual budget and in turn it invests in the academic research that is most likely to generate new knowledge. The evidence shows that a sizeable amount of that budget goes into basic research and Science Foundation Ireland appears to be okay with that.