Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

We had better differentiate between the FÁS programme and that of Science Foundation Ireland. The latter has been absolutely superb, not without the Minister of State and me keeping a cute eye on expenditure and determining where commercialisation opportunities arise. Our focus is certainly on enterprise.

The Science Challenge programme was established to encourage education and research and, eventually, high-level careers in science, engineering and technology. This is what we wanted but, unfortunately, on the basis of expenditure, value for money analysis and outputs, I felt the programme needed to be reappraised. On receiving the result of the reappraisal on my behalf by the Department, FÁS, Forfás and Science Foundation Ireland and senior officials from the Higher Education Authority, I decided immediately that although the programme was beneficial in one way, it certainly did not work within the remit of FÁS and was not good value for money. It is on this basis that I decided not to continue with the programme. I have instructed my officials to secure the orderly wind-down of the programme.

There are a number of initiatives, contacts and opportunities within the programme that can be availed of by people such as Professor Frank Gannon of Science Foundation Ireland with a view to considering other types of opportunities. In the context of the challenges that arise at present, FÁS would be best to focus on the unemployed. We must continue to train those who are employed to increase productivity. I decided on the basis of the views brought to my attention that we would not proceed with the programme.

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