When I launched the Tierney Report on Science, Technology and Innovation on 27 March, I announced that the Government had decided to establish a Cabinet committee and task force to progress the recommendations in the report.
The Chairman of the task force is Mr. John Travers, chief executives of Forfás, the national policy advisory body on industrial development and science and technology. The core membership of the task force will be senior representatives of the Departments of Finance, Enterprise and Employment, Agriculture, Food and Forestry, and Education. Other Departments will be represented as appropriate. Mr. Dan Tierney and Professor Dervilla Donnelly, formerly chairman and member of the council respectively, are also on the task force. The role of the task force is to report to the Cabinet committee on how best to address the implementation of the recommendations. The work of the task force will be overseen by the Cabinet committee which I will chair and which will comprise the Ministers of the relevant Departments.