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Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 11 Jun 2003

Vol. 568 No. 2

Industrial Development (Science Foundation Ireland) Bill 2002 [ Seanad ] : Second Stage (Resumed).

Question again proposed: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

Deputy Tony Gregory had the Floor. He has 19 minutes remaining.

I wish to share my remaining time with Deputies Connolly and Crowe.

I will conclude the point I was making when I last spoke on 23 May at the height of the controversy about free education and fees. Educational disadvantage had been discovered by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Education and Science after the best part of 20 years in Government, and many of those who contributed to the debate on this Bill expressed their views on it. I wanted to point out that I had been to a secondary school in the Dublin Central constituency on the afternoon of the debate. The teachers there had told me not one single child in that school would go on to university or had done so in recent years. I hope the Minister, the Government and everyone concerned, having discovered disadvantage in education, are now intent on doing something about it.

I enthusiastically welcome this Bill on the establishment of Science Foundation Ireland. It is a new national foundation for excellence in scientific research and will administer a €700 million fund to develop advanced research capacity in areas such as ICT and biotechnology. I understand it is developing specialist research teams and that it will have a commitment to research and development.

The dramatic expansion of development and the transformation of ICT continues to depend on wide-ranging research in several areas, including science, software systems and technology. Nevertheless, current and ongoing research will strive constantly to push out the frontiers of knowledge further in pursuit of ICT for the future. Accordingly, it is entirely appropriate that Science Foundation Ireland should seek and fund imaginative proposals for ICT related research.

Sitting suspended at 1.30 p.m. and resumed at 2.30 p.m.
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