Brendan Ryan (Labour)

We welcome the Bill and the idea of Science Foundation Ireland. Anything I say is to be seen in the context of an enthusiastic welcome for the concept. My motivation in speaking is to be constructive and add to a debate which is a little detached from the world of politics. There are issues to be debated concerning science, technology, innovation, invention, research and development. Because I know the Tánaiste has a long interest in this area I am quite certain these issues have been talked about, even though they may not surface.

We must be careful not to tie ourselves too firmly to the concept of national competitiveness. The best economist currently writing about international trade, Paul Krugman, is on record as saying he does not believe in the idea of nations having comparative advantage. He believes in companies within nations having comparative advantage and that to focus on a collective view of competitiveness, based on the only indices that can be measured collectively, such as, wage cost increases or inflation, is to distort what real competitiveness is about.

People in Ireland have a habit of choosing indices that are easiest to measure – usually wage growth and perhaps inflation and a couple of other things – and using them to make a statement of some sort. Nobody would dispute that continuing high inflation or continuing unrealistic wage increases will have an overall effect. However, that is not the same as looking at competitiveness.

The idea of establishing a well-funded, world quality research facility here is extremely good. The only thing that I, as an academic, could say is that it is a bit late to do so. That is not the Tánaiste's fault, it is the consequence of inaction on the part of successive Governments and a shortage of money.