Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If it is so great, how come 900 people came together to write the letter? According to Professor Kevin Mitchell of the Smurfit Institute of Genetics in Trinity College Dublin, if we want to have a knowledge economy, we have to invest in knowledge. The letter indicates that the people concerned are becoming "more and more dismayed" by the change in policy, which shifted all of the funding from science to hoped-for short-term applications. This expresses the frustration of those who will be inventing what we will need economically and, more importantly, societally in the coming years. What were the procedures used in publicising the consultation process for the new policy? Many have said it was a very narrow consultation process and that the information on it and the deadlines were kept to a closed circle. Knowledge of the process and an ability to participate in changing it was, therefore, very limited. I gather the deadline for the receipt of submissions is next week.

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