The Minister will remember how I warmly welcomed the setting up of the science and technology education investment fund last year for which £250 million was set aside. It was a most welcome fillip for the research community. It is widely recognised that much of the investment made by international computer, pharmaceutical and chemical companies in this country is because of the quality of the workforce, comprised of young people with excellent post-graduate degrees.
I ask the Minister to set up a research fund for postgraduate researchers in Ireland. Many of our best undergraduates leave Ireland attracted by international research institutions with the funds to pay them. These cannot be matched here. Unfortunately, 75 per cent of those who go abroad do not return. To get the full advantage of the Science and Technology Education (Investment) Fund, which is really to buy equipment and to fund facilities, we need to put in place the obverse of the coin, the funding to pay the researchers to work in these institutions. The Irish Research Scientists Association has proposed an innovative scheme which I will outline and which I support.
Much of the research done in our third level institutions leads to industrial innovation. The IRSA scheme proposes that manufacturing industry could covenant a proportion of their profits to a national research trust. This money would be eligible for triple tax relief, or some similar relief. The funding arising from the mechanism would be administered by Forbairt, the Irish Council for Science and Technology, or some other body and would be available to be invested to boost the discretionary element of the science budget.
With this form of tax relief to these companies the State would not be losing any funds because the money would be going into a research fund administered by the State. The end result would be that the State, the industries and the research worker would all be winners. This sort of tax credit scheme is used in the United States by the state of Massachusetts to attract high-tech industry to that state. This is what we want to do. This would annul the EU mandated increase in the tax rate charged to these high-tech companies and would relieve the fears of the pharmaceutical and chemical industries regarding tax increases.
In view of the fact that the privatisation of State assets is being mentioned at the moment, some of the proceeds of such privatisation could be invested in the research trust, as happened in Finland, transforming the quality and quantity of Finnish innovation.
The financial support system for postgraduates in this State ranges from nothing to £26,000 plus fees, plus bench fees. Two researchers doing the same work can be at opposite ends of the scale. Obviously, this is unfair. Forbairt funds researchers with scholarships worth £2,000 per annum. The people who receive these scholarships must pay their own fees which are, on average, £2,400 per annum. They may receive demonstratorships from the departments in which they work but these are restricted to a maximum reimbursement of £4,000 per annum. There are post-graduates in other public schemes who are paid £5,500 plus fees and who are allowed to take demonstratorships. Many people in the Forbairt schemes are far worse off than an unemployed person who receives £4,000 per annum and associated benefits which are not available to postgraduate students.
It is important to remember postgraduate fees can no longer be covenanted by interested third parties. The unfortunate person in receipt of a Forbairt grant is in the appalling position that they do not even have the money to pay their fees. The present system ensures a substantial number of our graduates go abroad never to return. This is a sad loss to Irish research and, subsequently, to Irish industry. Innovation in industry is essential and we cannot afford to lose this talent.
This is not a problem of the Minister's making. This problem has evolved over the years due to a lack of planning by the third level institutions and by the Government in the funding of postgraduate education. Now is the time to plan and to set up a fund such as I have suggested. The IRSA has suggested a minimum rate for the job of £5,500 plus fees and bench fees, or paying the person £2.65 per hour, hardly an enormous amount, and this should be index linked.
The IRSA suggests that unattached postgraduate schemes should be abolished and replaced by a structured, merged and expanded third level programme, perhaps called the National Graduate Innovation Training Programme. Research should be under the direction of group leaders rather than student led and there should be contracts of employment between the colleges and the postgraduates.
The fund which I suggest would mean we are all winners and the Minister would get more advantage from the splendid research fund set up to increase facilities and buy equipment. There could be a situation where we could properly fund those who are employed within the institutions and who are using this equipment.
