Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to come in for a minute to help members to recollect that when we looked at this issue last year or the year before, we had a recommendation that the State should collate all expenditure on these companies from Enterprise Ireland, the third level institutions, the HEA, local enterprise offices and the taxpayer in general, including the European taxpayer. Mr. Robert Watt, the Secretary General, wrote back to us saying that it was far too complex and that they could not possibly do that. We wrote back telling him how dare he insult the public service by saying it is not capable of putting the money together because every private organisation that applies for a research grant has to keep a record and the Department came back subsequently with a significant volume of improved information. It was not the lot but it was a decent stab at doing it. That is on the record from our previous efforts and perhaps every member was not tuned into that. We have received information and investment from a variety of other sources which makes Deputy Connolly's point even more serious. Mr. Beausang is saying that as a result of that, a greater effort is being made to at least establish what happened with the money because it was not just what was going in through Waterford IT, it was coming in from-----