Sir, - Your Statiscope 159 (May 15th) dealing with science and technology expenditure in 1996 is billed as a "sharper focus through statistics". Many a true word.
What your column exposes is the lack of co-ordination in science and technology activities across some 56 departments, agencies; boards, councils, committees etc. in the State science and technology sector.
Your figures (from Forfas End of Year Statement) total £607:87 million. The same organisation has also produced the 1996 Science and Technology Budget, which represents money allocated and spent on science and technology in 1996. This shows more than £240 million in excess of the figures you use.
That such a discrepancy should exist is not surprising, given the way we manage our science and technology activities in Ireland. Whatever set of figures one chooses to use, they conceal a lot.
Ireland's postgraduates do more than 60 percent of all research in the state yet most are paid less than a single person in receipt of unemployment benefit or assistance and in some cases must find their fees within that "grant".
Almost three-quarters of our research expenditure is paid for by the EU either through structural funding (ending in 1999) or the various EU research programmes.
More than 80 per cent of all research here is done in third-level education, yet discretionary support for research in this sector is less than £10 million. For every £1 spent on research at third level, £84 of public money is spent doing something else.
Science-and technology-driven projects generate more than 600 new jobs per week in Ireland, yet we don't have a Ministry of Science and Technology. Science and technology generate more of a return on investment than the arts and sport combined, yet unlike the Arts and Sports councils, the new Science, Techology and Innovation Advisory Council is not an executive council capable of making its own decisions.
Scientific research, in its broadest sense, is one of Ireland's great unsung success stories. This has been achieved largely in spite of Government indifference and cynicism, through great personal sacrifice and, not least, by sheer cunning over many years. - Yours etc.
Executive Secretary,
Irish Research Scientists' Association,
Sandyford, Dublin 18.