Departments disagree over scientific research funds

Conflicting views between Government Departments have caused delays in the allocation of a £560 million fund for scientific research, the largest such investment in the history of the State.

Opposing positions have been taken by the Departments of Education and Science and Health and Children and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with its advisers, Forfas and the Office for Science and Technology. The fund was recommended following a "foresight exercise" to establish Ireland's research needs to 2015. It was carried out by the Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation. The foresight fund forms part of the allocation for science under the National Development Plan and was provided specifically to make Ireland a world-class player in the computer and biotechnology research areas.

The disagreement is about whether to use the fund to create two independent research institutes or to put the money into existing facilities in universities and institutes of technology.

A departmental memorandum suggesting the independent institutes was circulated last November by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment as part of its consultation process on the issue.

A decision was expected to be announced before Christmas, according to OST sources, but opposing positions were taken by the relevant Ministers following advice by their Departments. This delayed a decision and a number of major issues including Northern Ireland have caused further delay. The earliest the Cabinet could consider the issue was either the 22nd or 29th of this month, according to Mr Mattie McCabe, head of the OST.

The third-level institutions are strongly opposed to the creation of stand-alone institutes. The foresight objectives could be met through third-level collaboration, according to Dr Art Cosgrove, president of UCD. "It may well be that some of the objectives of the programme can be achieved more easily and more cost-effectively through such co-operation and collaboration," he said.

The Irish Research Development Group, which represents Irish companies involved in research, is also dubious about the institutes approach. "Our concerns would relate to the structure," stated Dr Dick Kavanagh, managing director of the IRDG. "It has to complement what is already there in the universities and the institutes of technology."

The third-level institutions are concerned the large budgets would tempt key researchers out of the universities, but this was dismissed by a source in Forfas. "There is no question of denuding the universities," the source said. "We just don't want to spend the money on more of the same."

Mr McCabe also pointed out that the universities would have a part to play no matter what the decision on the institutes. "Even if the State or the foundation does set up its labs they will have to be linked very closely to the universities," he said.