This crippled Government is making researchers nervous

Ireland's determination to become a world leader in scientific research and innovation may be in jeopardy, the enterprise abandoned by a crippled Government that shows little genuine interest in the subject.

We will continue to hear politicians talk up the research accomplishments being achieved by higher education academics despite having to fight for funding and resources. How we have world class laboratories. How foreign direct investment continues to flow into the state.

However, the gross lack of commitment seen in the distribution of portfolios to ministers and ministers of state prevents me from being convinced and makes me believe all the talk is just cant.

If science and involvement in world class research is so vitally important to the country then why did the new Government fail to name a minister of state to take on the role as champion for the scientific community? The previous government understood the link between research activity and the development of a modern knowledge economy, but the new Government doesn’t seem to be at the races on the subject.

The programme for government had plenty of detail on who could cut turf and what hospitals had to be retained, but it did not mention Innovation 2020, our ambitious research policy document. Nor was there any mention of scientific research activity as a driver for an export economy. One could suggest it was an omission in error, but the more likely reason is right from a film script: "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn."

Yes all the players are in place on the stage, but no one bothered to bring a script so they don't know what to say on the subject. Many departments have large scale research budgets, for example agriculture which funds Teagasc and the Health Research Board funded by health.

Two of the most visible research funders are the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and the Department of Education and Skills. Jobs funds the high profile Science Foundation Ireland with a budget of more than €150 million. Education via the Higher Education Authority funds the block grants to higher education and provides about €32 million to support the good work being done by the Irish Research Council.

These two departments shared a minister of state during the last government, a role played very capably by Damien English who listened to what the researchers were saying about funding, about the lack of capital spending, about research for knowledge and not just research for commerce. He listened and he learned and this was clearly reflected in the Innovation 2020 policy document. It is full of good ideas and accepts the need for blue skies research as part of a rounded policy for science.

John Halligan now replaces him, introduced as minister of state for training and skills but initially with no reference to any role in jobs, enterprise and innovation. It seemed the department had lost a player in the important innovation space by not getting a minister of state to help implement Innovation 2020.

This situation is set to be reversed however with the latest word last week telling us John Halligan would have the same portfolio as was previously held by Damien English - in other words one foot in the education arena and one foot in jobs. That means John Halligan will be Minister of State for Training and Skills and also Minister of State for Research and Innovation.

Unfortunately the department could not say when exactly Mr Halligan would take on the other half of his new job.

It remains to be seen how much of an interest the minister for Jobs, Mary Mitchell-O'Connor takes in the research side of her department. She said all the right things about the need to implement Innovation 2020 when speaking last month at the American Chamber Royal Irish Academy innovation awards. It will take time to see whether an advocate for research emerges from either Jobs or Education.

However time for this to happen is critically short. Departments are formulating their spending priorities with near final figures expected to be handed to the Department of Finance in July. Will there be someone who can speak convincingly about the need to maintain funding for research? There are a lot of nervous research academics out there and research funders like Science Foundation Ireland who want the system to work, but fear that a lack of support arising from indifference may unravel the significant progress made so far.