Madam, - In regard to the article, "Government advised to prioritise R&D (The Irish Times, May 14th), the following points may be of interest to readers.
I worked as an electronics engineer for over 20 years and have very mixed feelings about spending on research by small countries. It should not be compared to infrastructure, where the state can benefit from new facilities or services (roads, buses and trains, building and construction).
Research can easily become a bottomless pit that absorbs vast sums of money and delivers limited results in terms of new discoveries, products and employment. Remember that research workers can present very attractive reasons to justify government funding. On termination of projects they become unemployed and must invent new projects.
How do you value research results? Benefits can be very indirect. While this difficulty can be overcome by large countries with histories of development work in manufacturing industries, small countries are at a major disadvantage. It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Ireland must obtain the maximum return from government spending. Research equals high costs with no guarantees of satisfactory results. - Yours, etc.,
Dr BRIAN PATRICK McARDLE, Connell Drive, Newbridge, Co Kildare.