MINISTER FOR Finance Brian Lenihan “can sometimes swing an axe indiscriminately” when making cuts, his brother and Minister of State for Science Conor Lenihan said yesterday.
Mr Lenihan also said some Department of Finance officials did not fully understand the connection between investment in scientific research and economic development. He said, however, this was not a criticism of the department and later described his comment about his brother as “lighthearted”.
Mr Lenihan was speaking yesterday at the opening of an event in Dublin organised by Enterprise Ireland. He said people had said the boom was gone, but 10 years of Government investment research had built up Ireland’s capacity for world-class science.
This included people, facilities and research centres, he said. The money had not been wasted. It was now necessary to “sustain the investment we have made” in research given its potential to support the smart economy.
Mr Lenihan said some officials in the department “don’t fully understand the connection between science and economic productivity and recovery”, but that this was not criticism.
“The serious point here is you cannot have a smart economy without a sustained investment in research and development,” he said. He said the Government must be more effective at selling the smart economy.
Ireland could not enjoy the level of foreign direct investment and economic gains it had seen without investment, he added.
He said it was important that science funding comes via a single entity. This would be based in his Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation under the remit of Minister for Enterprise and Innovation Batt O’Keeffe.