Dr. Graham Love:

Regarding the system issue to which the Deputy referred, again, it would not be at all unusual internationally for an institution's benefit, or shareholding, to be diluted through the process of external money coming in to try to get a technology out to market, employ people, etc. I have had quite a bit of experience of this. There would be plenty of examples internationally of a shareholder starting at 10% or 15% and then coming down to 2%, 1% or lower. What is really important for the system and for Ireland - and I say this as someone who has worked in Science Foundation Ireland and the Health Research Board and who now works in the HEA - is to grow the number of instances of this so that there are many more shareholdings of 1%, 2%, 3%, 4% and 5% helping the institutes in question and their areas in employment, etc., at a policy level.