Seanad debates

Tuesday, 11 October 2011

Investment in Science, Technology and Innovation: Statements

 

5:00 am

Photo of Sean BarrettSean Barrett (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State and recall having a great debate with him in Fermoy several years ago on the future of the economy. I am sceptical about virtually everything the Minister of State said. I wish he had not taken on baord the policies of the previous Government. An awful lot of money has been wasted in this area since 1998. It is unsuccessful in employment terms. This June, there were 53,000 fewer people working in industry than in 2005 and grant-aided firms lost 48,000 jobs between 2000 and 2009. The Minister of State, although moreso his Department, because he is new in it, must face up to the criticisms of these policies by an bord snip nua, Chris Horn, Colm McCarthy and Damien Kiberd. We spend a considerable amount of money accomplishing very little. The hi-tech sector provides approximately 3% to 5% of total employment in Ireland.

Enterprise Ireland spends more running itself than it gives in grants to firms. Forfás and the IDA do the same. Employment in these companies is falling and the IDA PR machine should tell the truth sometimes. This is a huge subsidy guzzling exercise about which I and Patrick Honohan warned when we served on the Culliton committee, that is, that the competitive edge of Irish industry has been blunted by people seeking subsidies. What we recommended in Culliton was fewer subsidies and more market-based activity.

We have built up a massive €300 million per year budget on research with no evaluations of what is accomplished. Colm McCarthy has the door worn out going to Science Foundation Ireland, which he calls science fiction Ireland. It will not tell him what the outputs are. Of course, the scientists think more subsidies are wonderful. I publish internationally, and I will be at a conference in Washington next month, but I do not require any grants to do so.

We have confused research with subsidies. Irish scientists have turned out to be replicas of Irish farmers. They are more interested in getting subsidies. We should not count that as a benefit. We must analyse what they are doing with the money because they will continue to queue up as long as the subsidies are there and that is a serious problem. McCarthy's criticism of the innovation task force was that "not even a tentative quantification of the benefits from this prodigious spending programme was offered". That was €50 million investment in research and development. They must really prove it and I hope Mr. Chopra, who I hope to meet in Kenmare at the weekend, looks into this. We spend a vast amount of money but industrial employment is in decline.

I question the agencies. Wilton Place, where Enterprise Ireland, the IDA and so on are located, is a very large PR outfit and there is not much economic reality there. They must be confronted about that, either by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, or by the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock. The Department has allowed too much power to go to the quangos. They will continue to boast that they can spend even more money and that is what they are at. That must be confronted because the results are most disappointing.

Research and development was kicking in hope. An bord snip nua stated that: "The largest verifiable output to date appears to be the publication of articles as opposed to more concrete measures of economic return". The group is strongly of the view that substantial reductions in funding are warranted given the significant amounts invested to date, the lack of verifiable economic benefits resulting from these investments and the inflationary impact of funding on research, administration and salaries and that there is insufficient evidence of the positive economic impact of the programme to date. The Minister of State's Department must confront the legitimate criticisms on behalf of the Minister for Finance and stop saying this is apple pie and that everybody should bow down in its favour.

The other aspect to which the Minister of State referred was mathematics. That was a cop out, although I know he is coming to talk to us about it. The heads of the Irish universities did not want to do anything about mathematics, such as improve the teaching. Some 80% of children are taught mathematics by people who have no qualifications in the subject, so bonus points were given to the 20% who had a proper mathematics teacher or who could afford grinds. They chose the option which involved them doing the least amount of work, such as reforming their mathematics departments and linking the higher diploma in education department with the mathematics department. I do not accept that as an example of anything that is desirable.

This sector is dominated by hyperbole and spin doctors and it is not helping us in our recovery. The beneficiaries will queue up looking for subsidies and invent more reasons that they should not pay corporation tax here because they want the 12.5% rate reduced. One must go through the an bord snip nua report to check out the results of these expenditures. Knowledge economy departments probably account for 5% of the knowledge in any university. The stem subjects use the research money to extend their budgets and we have downgraded languages - we are seriously short of people with languages - and economics departments. My department has been approximately halved. The lack of basic economics in the Department of Finance and in the banks caused the country to crash. I am not making a sectoral point on behalf of economics but other subjects in universities have been ground down to promote this massive juggernaut called Irish science, technology and innovation. I find the emperors concerned are particularly bereft in the way of clothing.

I call for a more questioning attitude. We spent a considerable amount of money but the results are most unimpressive. It is more PR than reality. Industrial employment in Ireland in the period concerned fell by 53,000 and total employment fell by 120,000. We know the construction industry is in decline but the manufacturing industry is not thriving despite the hyperbole in the PR handouts from the Wilton Place agencies. They must be questioned-----

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