Dr. Lisa Keating:

Professor Ferguson has covered a lot of ground. I will add a few points for clarity. He mentioned that 10% of the partnerships we have under Horizon 2020 are with the UK. This is really important in terms of making up the shortfall of the €125 million to fund those. However, it is not just about finding an alternative partner. I emphasise that these are long-term relationships with stellar universities and top academics who are recognised around the world and who are based in UK universities. It is really important for us to maintain those links. It is not a monetary type of partnership or interaction one can find it in another country. While, like business, it is really important to diversify and look to Europe for new partners and collaborations, the links we have with UK academics and researchers are key because these people are recognised as some of the best in the world and Ireland's reputation is enhanced by our interaction with them. The money is not just to fill a budget pot. Maintaining those links is of strategic importance to Ireland.

A question was asked about collaborations between industry and universities and higher education institutions. As Professor Ferguson stated, we are not necessarily finding that there has been a drop-off in those interactions. The trend over time has been to increase greatly. Irish companies now invest more in research and development than they did in the past and there is much stronger collaboration with universities and higher education institutions. What defines that is the quality of the research and the talent, which is probably why Brexit is probably not impacting on those. This is what we have in Irish universities and the Irish higher education system. We worry that if we continue to erode the funding, we will not have that excellence in science and research and that excellence in our talent. That is what will stop industry collaborating with our members. It is not the uncertainty of Brexit; it is the lack of quality and talent that would result from a further erosion of funding. I wanted to reiterate that point.

The English-speaking aspect comes into it a great deal. I worked as a researcher in Germany. I am not proud to say that I cannot speak German but it did not impact on me. English is obviously important in research and academia and is spoken by many. While that is the icing on the cake, our problem is that we do not have the rest of the cake. We have been nibbling away at it for years. We put an awful lot of money in through SFI by means of PRTLI. We put in a great deal of funding and when the downturn happened, we were able to turn to that investment, reap rewards and use it to bring us through the economic recession we faced. Going back to the cake analogy, the problem we now face is that we have not been buying the flour and sugar and putting everything back in. We have the icing on the cake. We have the mechanisms that SFI has and the English-speaking element. We have lots of things going for us but we must focus on funding core research if we are to make a difference. As the Senator noted, this is one of the few opportunities presented by Brexit and we need to capitalise on it.