Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I agree with some aspects of the McCarthy report, but not others. Mr. Colm McCarthy suggested a further 14% cut in spending, but this might be too much. However, he made some valuable recommendations. In the context of our Estimates discussions with the Department of Finance in advance of the budget, we would support the idea of a single funding line as opposed to scattering the funding over a number of Departments. We would favour his recommendations on, as the Deputy rightly mentioned, the degree of fragmentation across agencies, not just Departments, of the delivery of the science spend, including EI, Science Foundation Ireland, IDA, the prestigious Marine Institute, Teagasc and many others. There must be consolidation and I will fight for this aspect of the McCarthy recommendations, particularly given the fact that we are facing a squeeze on the level of funding available. We must consolidate the spend to get a commercialised output and ratchet it up even further. I thank the Deputy for her comments and support.

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