The government's attempts to address the current crisis in science and technology, though genuine, are too little too late, according to Dr John Donovan, secretary to the Irish Research Scientists Association. "The numbers taking physics and chemistry are effectively in freefall," he says. "We have real problems in attracting students to science and, as recently as this September, some schools have ceased to offer chemistry as a Leaving Cert subject." Among the remedies, Donovan suggests active intervention with students at the early stages of second level, a stable support base for publicly funded research programmes and the establishment of an executive science council, which would make its own spending decisions and plan for and support research in all disciplines.