Dr. Tom McDonnell:

It is perplexing for a modern advanced economy that claims to be focused on education and innovation, and claims to care about these things, to spend consistently every year about half of what peer economies in north-west Europe spend. It is an absolute mystery to me and it would be great if people from the Department of public expenditure could be brought in to justify why the allocation every year for public R and D is so low and why they are hamstringing the economy in this way.