Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 139: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his views on the report of the international evaluation panel on Science Foundation Ireland; the measures he proposes to bring to Government. [4095/06]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am very pleased with the positive conclusions of the report referred to by the Deputy, which I launched in December. This evaluation report, Science Foundation Ireland The First Years 2001-2005, which was commissioned by Forfás, is the culmination of a substantial evaluation process carried out by an international panel led by Professor Richard Brook, director of the Leverhulme Trust in London.

While the panel indicates in the report that it is early in the life of SFI to assess the long-term cultural and economic impact of the research it supports, overall, it endorses the establishment and strategic direction of SFI and I welcome this endorsement. The panel found that SFI has been a positive driving force for change in the Irish research system in recent years and that impressive progress towards developing a world-class capability in biotechnology and ICT has been achieved in a short time. The report provides strong confirmation both of the need for SFI and of the contribution it has made, and continues to make, to strengthening our national research system, which is a fundamental building block for the knowledge economy to which we aspire.

The panel has made a number of recommendations on research excellence, sustainability of research funding, coherence and co-ordination by research funding agencies, commercialisation of research and some operational issues. SFI will work on the implementation of these recommendations together with my Department and other agencies as appropriate. In addition, a number of these issues will be addressed in the context of the strategy on science, technology and innovation 2006-2013, which I am currently finalising and which I will bring to Government in due course.