John Dardis (Progressive Democrats)

Senator Ulick Burke raised the question of funding for the Irish Research Council. I am sure the Senator is aware that the Tánaiste has been very much involved in this area. However, it operates at two levels, the academic and industrial. By international standards, investment in research by companies in Ireland has been poor. I do not agree that this will cause a brain drain. We have a very good example of what is being done by Intel in Leixlip, where there is now a leading edge IT research centre. I will bring the Senator's views to the attention of the Tánaiste and the Minister for Education and Science.

Senators Ulick Burke, Moylan, Feighan, Bradford, Dooley, O'Brien and Glynn referred to the talks in Brussels and related agricultural issues. Time will be found next week to deal with this matter adequately. It is a critical issue. As Senator O'Brien pointed out, while it was represented that there would be a 25% cut in dairy product support, most of this was part of Agenda 2000. The Senator is correct to state the cut is 4%, of which 81% will be subject to compensation. In addition, the amount of butter going into intervention has been increased from 30,000 tonnes to 70,000 tonnes. These were considerable achievements in the face of great odds. When the original proposals were published, one would have had great fears as to what the future would be. I will not minimise the difficulties farming faces but what has emerged is very much better than what we might have expected. The Minister is to be commended for this.