Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I agree with Deputy Cullinane's comments about the response the committee received, especially from the Department in question. The education sector requires significant investment. This is a potential source of investment. These universities and institutes of technology are a research and development tool but there is a cost to that research and development, in the same way there is a cost to companies when they do their own research and development. By not counting that cost it means we have absolutely no way of knowing if we are getting value for money or not.

There is also the potential for reputational damage in the future to companies that are spin-out companies if this matter keeps coming back. It is, therefore, right on a number of levels that we continue on to get to a process and a system where we can actually count what the investment is so we can measure whether it offers value for money.