Taoiseach says no mistake was made, writes Jamie Smyth in Beijing
The Taoiseach defended the Government's decision to invest €35 million in the failed MediaLab Europe project yesterday and said a tender to set up a new institute would be issued next week.
In his first public comment since the decision to close the flagship research centre, Mr Ahern said the Government was committed to establishing a new digital research centre in the "Digital Hub".
MediaLab Europe was a pet project of Mr Ahern's, who strongly promoted the decision to set it up despite warnings from his officials that the State may have to bail out the institute if its business model failed. Last week the board of MediaLab Europe decided to close the institute after just five years because it could not raise enough corporate funding to meet its annual running costs.
At a briefing in Beijing yesterday, Mr Ahern said he didn't think the Government had made a mistake in funding the project and would not lose most of the €35 million it had invested.
"We are not going to lose much of the money that we invested in it. Most of that money went into the structure or the salaries and wages of those involved in it," said Mr Ahern, who indicated that the proposed new digital research centre would have the involvement of the Irish third-level education institutions.
He said the MediaLab project was seen as extraordinarily significant at the start due to the collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). But difficulties with the board structure at MediaLab Europe and a lack of corporate donations had hurt the project, he added.
Fine Gael and Labour have both criticised the Government for wasting taxpayers' money in the MediaLab project.
Meanwhile, in Beijing yesterday the Minister for Enterprise, Mr Micheál Martin, signed a memorandum of understanding on software co-operation between the Chinese and Irish governments to help promote business contacts and trade between both country's software firms.
China's software industry is growing at more than 20 per cent per year and the industry has been targeted by the Government as a key sector for promotion. Several Irish software companies will sign deals with Chinese firms later today as the first tranche of announcements are made on the trade mission.
The Minister for Agriculture, Ms Mary Coughlan, who is accompanying the Taoiseach on the mission, also signed an agreement that will enable Irish firms to export pig meat to China. This "pig meat protocol" will regulate exports of pig meat by Irish firms to China, which is one of the world's biggest food markets.
Ms Coughlan said she would also raise the issue of removing the current ban on exports of Irish beef with Chinese officials. All exports of beef from EU countries are currently banned by the Chinese due to the presence of BSE.