Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

Science Foundation Ireland was a very good initiative established by a Minister in the Fianna Fáil-led Administration in the late 1990s and has put an enormous amount of money into science and science-related research. It has benefited in the main, but not exclusively, science graduates who want to do postgraduate work, including doctoral and postdoctoral studies. Substantial funding remains in that area. There was a difficulty in attracting people into the STEM areas and into science subjects at undergraduate level. My predecessor, Mary Coughlan, was instrumental in persuading the universities application system to award an extra 25 points for higher level mathematics, which is the gateway into science-related subjects such as physics, chemistry and engineering. If Deputy Smith's party member has specific evidence of declines in particular areas, I am happy to seek a detailed explanation. My impression is that there is no shortage, relative to the space available, of people to do postgraduate work in Ireland. However, there is an internationalisation of the third level sector at postdoctoral level. That is a good thing because Irish people move to other universities and people come to ours.

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