Professor Peter Clinch:

That is a good question. It can often be difficult to articulate why this area is so important because many people think that it is work done by smart people in white coats who are different from them. The reality is that this work is done by many different sorts of people. As my demonstration showed, quite often when people articulate matters to do with science, they talk about some major innovation whereby a whole area of research has been created and there is some sort of spin-out from it in the shape of a company or some ideas. People sometimes fail to appreciate that it is about people.

Ireland did not have a strong research base until it started to develop one 20 years ago. A country cannot compete as an advanced economy if that strong research base is not in place. We firstly need to articulate that everybody else is doing and, if we do not, we will not be able to compete with them. If we want to be a competitive economy, we must invest in research and development, research and development. Research and development not only creates the products, services and jobs of tomorrow but also develops the human capital of the population - smart people doing smart things. That enables inward investment and more successful companies but it also helps us to use innovation created elsewhere and brought into this country. We need to articulate that Ireland cannot rely on imported research and development. We cannot continue to compete at a high level unless we continue to improve the research intensity in the country.

What are the mechanisms to do that? Science Foundation Ireland, SFI, has touched on many of these points but it is important to reach into schools and encourage students to realise the importance of science. As Senator Reilly said, we should examine the issue of gender and the take-up of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM. The ability to attract know-how and talent from abroad is important and relies upon bringing in expert researchers from abroad in areas in which we do not have critical mass. That is also important.

There is a further role we can play and I have talked to the organisation about this. The organisation is also keen to continue to engage, and engage more, with the Oireachtas about articulating what the organisation is doing and why it is important. I would like every Oireachtas Member to be an evangelist for this area and to articulate why it is critical to Ireland's future competitive advantage. I am keen, as chairperson, to see that the organisation co-operates very heavily with the Oireachtas in the future and I am very open to that.