Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have a further question which I brought up with Mr. Shanahan the last day but will flag again. It concerns the issue of Science Foundation Ireland, SFI, funding into the third level sector. The majority of it goes into the national universities. I have been in touch with SFI and it has highlighted the international dimension of its review panels. All of that is well but we need some realignment of that funding into the technological university, TU, sector because it will be hard for research potential to be generated if we are not getting the funding. At present, the majority of large-scale SFI funding goes into national university centres. That is back to Mr. Shanahan's point about doing more for the large urban centres than for the regions.