Support Irish science

摘要

SIR — Researchers in Ireland continue to compete internationally as best they can, but we stil! lack any coherent long-term policy for the development of basic research. Our industries fail to appreciate the need for highly trained, competent researchers beyond the PhD qualification. We have failed miserably to inculcate a culture of enterprise and innovation.In 1994, the Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (STIAC) was set up by the then Minister for Commerce and Technology, Mr Seamus Brennan, to advise government on how best to improve the effectiveness of the national science and technologysystem in contributing to national economic development. The resulting Tierney Report made 160 individual recommendations that underpinned a series of detailed and wide-ranging measures aimed at generating the dynamism necessary to create a highly competitive economy and to make a significant impact on the problem of unemployment.