This matter relates to the level of investment in science and technology, particularly in science, and the way in which it can lead to the creation of jobs. If this country is to make progress it must develop its indigenous industries, the agricultural and food industry, the fishing industry and the forestry sector. Most multinational companies are science based, particularly the pharmaceutical and electronic industries, which have a large base in this country. These companies depend very heavily on science and technology for progress. During the 1960s the then British Prime Minister, Mr. Harold Wilson, laid very strong emphasis on the relevance of science and technology as a means of stimulating economic development.
Two types of jobs can be created. First, we can create jobs with a high level of innovation which are heavily dependent on technology. A large number of people, earning good money, can be employed in these jobs and we can get a very worthwhile price on the world market for their products. Second, we can go down the road of a low wage economy, an option to which I would be very much opposed. If we want a highly developed technological economy which produces new goods then it is essential to develop our science and technology.
I am not suggesting that there is a crisis in science as suggested by a body of practising scientists in a report in today's Irish Press although there is no doubt that there are very serious problems in that area. In August 1993, Nature, the world's leading scientific magazine, referred to Ireland as a scientific backwater where the Government had turned its back on science. Ireland is described as a country where science is not championed by the Government and where there is no ministry with special responsibility for science, no research council and no effective lobby to support it. This scientific journal is read in almost every scientific laboratory throughout the world.
Low levels of innovation have been cited as one of the fundamental reasons Ireland is not developing the jobs it badly needs. Ireland has the lowest level of investment in science in the developed world and the level of medical research has been seriously reduced over the past few years, particularly medical research supported by the Health Research Board. The budget for this board in 1992 was reduced to £1.7 million, or 0.09 per cent of the total health budget. Since the abolition of the National Board for Science and Technology approximately a decade ago, scientific agencies have been under siege and bombardment from elements of the establishment whose ignorance has only been matched by the vigour with which they have set about destroying and damaging Irish science. It is disgraceful that elements of the establishment should have set about undermining science, which in turn has undermined our capacity to develop. Much of the progress made in Ireland has been science based. This is particularly true of the dairy industry where progress was underpinned by the research and teaching in UCC and UCD.
It would be unrealistic to think that Ireland could lead the world in the area of science. However, it is essential to make a realistic investment in science and technology which will enable us to be conversant with trade in this area and to avail of ideas developed elsewhere. It is vital to support out small group of elite scientists who, over the past few months, have been distracted from their work, forced to enter the political process and write to newspapers in an effort to highlight their difficulties. I refer in particular to Professor Brian Harvey from UCC who has been writing to the newspapers for the past three or four months and Dr. Garret Fitzgerald, a very distinguished young Irish scientist who has returned to this country from the United States. I understand he employs 36 people in his laboratory while Professor Brian Harvey employs 11 people in his laboratory. Most of the funding received by these scientists comes from outside the country. It is essential that every encouragement is given to these people who provide a great service, generate relationships throughout the international community, attract students from other countries to study here and enable our best and brightest young scientists to study here and eventually become involved in industry. Many of the people whose work underpinned the progress in our dairy and agricultural industry began their working life in the Agricultural Research Institute. The Minister for Social Welfare, Deputy Woods, worked in the Agricultural Research Institute, where he made a contribution to science, before he became involved in politics.
A Cabinet sub-committee should be set up to consider and promote science and technology. A science board should be established — I understand there is some movement in this direction — to review the present position in this area and make recommendations. We will not make any progress in the area of science and technology until a science unit is set up in one of the key Departments — the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs or the Department of Finance.
