Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. At the start we should note that most of these questions were tabled over five months ago. The delay is not just because of the nature of Taoiseach's Question Time. The Taoiseach halved the number of Taoiseach's questions periods when he came into government four years ago, taking out one day of Taoiseach's questions. He also does not reschedule when he cancels on a Tuesday. That has allowed a significant backlog to build up. I have asked him to address this, but nothing has been done over the past four years.

The Taoiseach spoke about the plenary session on economic growth that he attended and his main message at Davos was that Ireland was open for business and that he was not going to drift into populism. He said that at the time because it was before the general election in Greece. That promise did not last too long. I have noticed in his remarks that he creates a political narrative that suits his own party's situation. It is not today or yesterday that Ireland became a focal point for inward investment, particularly for high-end manufacturing. It is a policy that has been successfully implemented over a 30-year period, if not longer, in terms of both our place in Europe and our low corporation tax, which have been essential ingredients in attracting inward investment. He must accept that when he is talking to multinational companies, as he did in Davos, which employ 24,000 people, as he said, although of course many more thousands are employed than that, key reasons they are here are long-term investment in people, in our education system and research, and the long-term basis of key public policies, such as our pro-European Union position and our low corporation tax. The Taoiseach tends to place the emphasis on a shortened period and he does not talk up the consistency of long-term policy in Ireland, which is the cornerstone. That is what gives certainty to those who invest and have invested over a long period of time, particularly in the life sciences and technology - the Intels and Pfizers of this world. Does the Taoiseach share the view of multinational investors that long-term investment in people and ideas is central to why they are here?

That leads me to a further question. If the Taoiseach believes in that, and he knows that was a key theme at Davos, as it has been for many years, how can the disproportionate cuts to third and fourth level education help Ireland's reputation in attracting foreign direct investment? How can we face the chief executives with a straight face and talk up our investment in education and research while in reality there have been significant cuts to investment in third and fourth level education and research? Only a few months ago, an unprecedented letter from some of our most senior researchers across the country was published, which complained about the lack of funding for basic research in science. They said:

As scientists in Ireland and Irish scientists abroad, we are committed to making our contribution to Ireland’s recovery by doing the best and most innovative research possible. However, we are deeply concerned about the research policies implemented by the current Government. The policy of sustained investment in scientific excellence that helped build a vibrant scientific community in Ireland over the past 15 years has given way to a short-sighted drive for commercialisable research in a very limited set of prescribed areas.

I discussed that earlier in terms of the Cabinet committee. I do so now in terms of the key message of Davos. They also said:

Along with an investment in research that is below the EU average, steadily decreasing core grants to universities, and a constant demand to increase student numbers, these policies are creating a perfect storm for scientific research and education in Ireland and are undermining our abilities to carry out world-class research, to retain scientific talent in the country and also to educate future scientists and build a real and sustainable knowledge economy.

What they are saying flies in the face of the official pronouncements, the rhetoric and the political narrative and it is extremely worrying. Well over 100 scientists, both in Ireland and abroad, have put their names to this plea to sort out what is going on in third and fourth level and to change our policy, which is overly reliant on the applied side, ignoring the fundamental importance of basic research both to a proper third level system and to a proper research environment.

In addition, I was not just talking earlier about industrial relations in Ireland, but the absence of career pathways in Ireland for researchers. Researchers in Ireland are now expected to spend ten years without any contract or any security whatsoever. It is not sustainable in terms of building a world-class research environment. Many researchers will leave the country if something is not done about it. Many of the presentations at Davos, and the Taoiseach's own comments there, will mean very little if they are not backed up by a sustained, coherent science and research policy, which the Taoiseach currently does not have. That is the reason for the extraordinary situation I outlined earlier as described in an article written by Mike Jennings, who is the general secretary of the Irish Federation of University Teachers. I acknowledge he has an interest in representing his members, but he is saying that "[t]he vast majority of the estimated 5,000 full-time researchers attached to Irish higher-education institutions work on externally funded and temporary, insecure contracts" and the emphasis of the universities is on keeping them at one remove, short term and contractual. That is what is happening. If one talks to any researcher, they cannot get mortgages.

The Government says we want to become the beacon of research and to attract the best and the brightest to research. It says we want people to do PhDs, but it cut the funding for PhDs. I do not know why it did that. It cut the postgraduate research grants. It is an extraordinary, counterintuitive measure, which hardly mattered in terms of its impact on the public finances, yet the former Minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, went ahead and did it, aided and abetted by the Taoiseach. It all flies in the face of what the Taoiseach is saying on his plenary panels and at the plenary meetings. There is a contrast between rhetoric and reality. Language becomes meaningless when he reads out the prepared scripts to the great and the good at Davos, but back on the ranch, on the university campuses and in the Tyndalls of this world, the world-class researchers see they are being discriminated against in contrast to employees in secure positions in universities.

The Government is not serious about research and researchers. If one looks at all of the areas, from the Tyndall to NUI Galway and Maynooth University, right across the board the approach is that researchers are not a permanent part of the landscape. In fact, they are a temporary, insecure and revolving-door type operation, and the turnover is key.

This all flies in the face of European policy, the European research area, ERA, approach, the innovation Union and the Horizon 2020 programme that the former Commissioner, Ms Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, outlined last year, all of which emphasised attracting and retaining competent researchers. Giving them security was essential to a long-term impactful research policy. It needs an urgent response from Government because the reality on the ground is a far cry from the kind of high-flowing rhetoric that one articulates and hears at meetings such as Davos. I respectfully put it to the Taoiseach that the Government is living a lie on this one and there is no connection between the rhetoric and the reality on the ground.

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