Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

When we look at any organisation moving towards reform, as we are doing in the case of Science Foundation Ireland, we must start by looking back, considering where it has come from, and make an evaluation of the organisation and its remit to date, asking whether it has been fit for purpose, before we considering changing it. From a personal point of view, my first knowledge of Science Foundation Ireland came a number of years ago when I was a county councillor. A query was raised by a researcher in one of the universities who had noticed that funds which had been made available by SFI for a specific project were not being used for that project and the work being undertaken in the university was being done to advance the private interests or whim of other people and organisations that could benefit from it. At the time we challenged that situation and tried to get to the bottom of it, to discover why there was no adequate monitoring by SFI of the public moneys that had been given to this college for a specific purpose. My experience of the interaction with the organisation at the time was not a good one. We never got any answers or found any accountability as to where that money was being spent.

That may not have been the first time that controversy has attached to this organisation. There was much negative publicity and controversy on a number of fronts over the appointment of Mr. Mark Ferguson as director general more than a year ago. The first was-----

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