asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce whether a review of the IIRS, as it was then, which was carried out by the NBST, as it was then, was not published; that the order of 10,000 copies of this publication, valued at £10 each were shredded rather than distributed; the reason for this; if the figures are not accurate, if he will give accurate figures; and whether his Department have any system in place to monitor incidents such as this.
Written Answers. - Review of IIRS.
108.
The review in question was initiated by the Government in December 1980; it was completed in 1983 and its findings were at the time made available to the then Minister for Industry and Energy. The findings were taken into account by the Minister for the purposes of the White Paper on industrial policy published on 12 July 1984. It was considered, however, that, in the circumstances prevailing, the report which was intended for the confidential information of the Minister should not be published. A limited number of copies of it were made available, for purposes of consultation within the public service, to participants in the review, and to the members of the Dáil Committee on Public Expenditure.
As regards the preparation in final form of copies of the report, this was entirely a matter for the then National Board for Science and Technology. I am concerned however, to learn, as a result of inquiries made that some 1,200 copies of the report were printed at a total cost of £10,263. This was done apparently in anticipation that it might be decided to publish the report. The authorisation of the expenditure was a matter entirely for the National Board for Science and Technology — as a matter of day to day administration — and did not involve my predecessor or my Department in any way.
It is a matter of concern to me that expenditure to the extent indicated should have been incurred in the printing of copies of the report, though expenditure to a lesser extent was inevitable. Whilst I recognise that a similar situation is unlikely to recur, I am directing all State bodies under the aegis of my Department to take special care not to place orders for printing in bulk of reports unless the need for publication has first been established.
On the establishment of EOLAS, the Irish Science and Technology Agency, in January of this year the NBST was relocated in the former IIRS premises at Glasnevin. In the course of this transfer, an amount of redundant material was disposed of; this included undistributed copies of the IIRS review.