Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá mé ag roinnt ama leis an Teachta O’Rourke. I thank everyone involved in and taking part in Science Week. It is an important initiative that gives us an opportunity to platform science and how it affects and shapes our everyday lives. The pandemic, perhaps more than other times, brought the role of science and scientists centre stage and into everyday conversation. Bhí eolaithe go rialta sna meáin. Bhí an pobal ag plé ábhair chasta eolaíochta. Bhí an vacsaín ar cheann de na samplaí is treise de luach staidéir eolaíochta and in lots of ways the high rates of vaccine takeup reflect a scientifically engaged public. Scientific analysis should not just shape the behaviour of individuals but should also guide governments and all policymakers. Scientists should have a clear and structured role in guiding government policy.

The Government recently published a new research strategy entitled Impact 2030, which is the successor strategy to Innovation 2020. A part that stood out to me concerned a plan to improve the flow of scientific advice to Departments by establishing new scientific advice structures. My colleague Deputy Conway-Walsh, who sends her apologies, made the need for a structured link between research and policymaking a key component of her speech for Science Week last year. Accordingly, we welcome the inclusion of this in the strategy. It is essential we make progress in this area and we must ensure this moves from policy document into standard practice. At European level there are structures that facilitate engagement between researchers and policymakers, such as the European Commission's scientific advice mechanism, that should provide a useful model.

Cuirimid fáilte freisin roimh an eagraíocht mhaoinithe náisiúnta a bhfuil caint fúithi laistigh de dhoiciméad Impact 2030. We also welcome the proposed new funding agency put forward in Impact 2030. We look forward to seeing the research Bill because we believe it is important there is a unified research system that places all research on an equal footing. People would be shocked to learn how little basic research is funded in this State. While applied research is important, our funding model is totally out of balance and the humanities and social sciences have also been undervalued and underfunded. A research funding agency is needed to roll out competitive funding and guide research priorities. That said, the role of higher and further education will continue to be crucial. Core funding for higher education makes up the basis of our research system and will continue to do so. The success of other research funding agencies such as SFI and the Irish Research Council will continue to depend on leveraging the higher education system to achieve specific objectives. This will also be the case for our new funding agency.

Funding our higher education system is the foundation of all public research investment in this State. The best way to celebrate Science Week is to move higher education out of the austerity mode it has been locked in for some time now. We saw a modest increase in core funding this year but that needs to be built upon significantly. This summer, the Government published a policy document that recognised a €307 million funding gap in our higher education system, despite students and families paying some of the highest fees in the EU. That policy document and statement from the Minister that significant progress would finally be made but that did not fully materialise. Addressing the decade of underfunding is needed before we can really talk about addressing and valuing scientific research.

That is essential if we want to ramp up and rebalance research and development. Caithfimid córas taighde uile-oileáin a bheith againn chun torthaí níos fearr a bhaint amach go heacnamúil. An increase in publicly-funded research is essential to tackle the social and economic challenges we face and to produce a sustainable economy. Of course, any person or organisation seeking to invest in Ireland is looking at what value we place on that area of research and investment. Public funding should be open access and available to all academics and to the wider public to ensure the greatest level of collaboration. Economic reports show that for every euro invested in research and development, more than €5 is returned to the economy.

Public investment in research also leverages higher levels of industry investment and leads to accessing more competitive research supports through international funds like Horizon Europe. We need to value research and all researchers, including PhD researchers who have been surviving or subsisting, in some respects, on stipends that are very far from any kind of minimum standard of living, much less a living wage. That needs to be addressed. We need to increase investment in public research. We need to make sure this includes improvements to the working conditions of all researchers. Higher education research has consistently broken down between the university and technological higher education sectors at percentages of roughly 88% and 12%, respectively. Both that imbalance and the regional imbalance need to be addressed.

I also make the point that cross-Border enrolment on this island has remained unacceptably low. This does not get the attention it deserves. Despite living on a small island, it is clear that partition has a bearing on where students choose to study. In the North, university enrolments by students from the South are relatively low. Between 2016 and 2019, it was approximately 4%. In this State, students from the North make up less than 1% of the student population. This is despite the lack of third-level capacity in the North. This should be much more normalised. It should be much easier to access. It is incumbent on us all to work together in this regard. I commend the recommendations of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in this regard.

I will briefly make some final points. The sciences and occupations from right across the economy that have a scientific element to them have a crucial role to play. We should not just be talking about higher education; we should talk about further education and apprenticeships. The sciences have a role to play there. Science-based trades and apprenticeships will be crucial in terms of the green economy and a whole range of new enterprises and jobs that have hardly been conceived of yet. That should not just be accessed through third level, however. We need to create opportunities in science right across the board. I recently attended an event organised by the Institute of Physics. One of the points made was that it is a crucial discipline and subject at both university and post-primary level. There is a serious problem with the supply of physics teachers and physics graduates, however, which has serious implications for education and for industry that need to be addressed.

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