Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

The funding for Science Foundation Ireland, €179 million in 2009, was reduced to €165 million in budget 2010. Enterprise Ireland's capital funding spending was reduced by €126 million and the science budget of the Department of Education and Science was reduced from €256 million to €150 million. There has been a severe reduction in the spending on science, technology and innovation. This requires that spending should be more focused, which is part of the recommendations from the NCC. Spending should be focused on bringing products that are near to market for commercialisation. I did not hear the Tánaiste refer to how she is directing State agencies working in this area to target this type of funding to ensure it leads to job creation and development of new products and those that are near to market.

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