THE president of University College Cork, Prof Michael Mortell, has a mission. He seizes any opportunity to air the matter.
Prof Mortell has overseen the development of the second largest third level institution in the State to the point where it has become a huge contributor to the economy of the southern region, and to Cork in particular.
To put it in focus: UCC's annual budget is £66 million but its spin off impact on the region is estimated at £120 million annually. Its student population is now 10,500. In 1990, there were only 7,500 students at the university.
Of the annual budget, £16.44 million comes from research contracts - making UCC by far the Republic's largest research campus. In the past five years, UCC researchers have earned £60 million.
There are 360 people involved in this area of activity. Their annual wage bill is £7.7 million.
By any measure, UCC is big business. There are some 1,700 full and part time staff on the payroll - an increase of 450 since 1990.
A study to be published soon by the university's economics department will show that for every job created at UCC, a matching one is created outside. If the IDA could announce a company of similar size for Cork, Dublin or any other city, the sound of trumpets would be deafening. If such a company collapsed, the economic consequences would make national headlines.
But back to the mission: "Where are the jobs being created," asks Prof Mortell. "The answer is in the pharma chem, computer software and electronics sectors. These are the areas looking for trained brainpower. They need people skilled in research. Who supplies it? The universities.
Prof Mortell says that for the past 20 years, the universities have been warning that the State has ignored the question of in vestment in research. We are at the point, he argues, where we cannot supply enough research graduates to companies who come here in the first place because of our much vaunted education system.
"Foreign companies are being told that we have an ample supply of graduates to meet their needs. It is one of the great selling points when our politicians go abroad seeking such investment.
"Unfortunately, it is no longer true. We are selling something that we do not have. It is a falsehood, and when our politicians come home again, they promptly forget about the real situation and its implications. Universities like UCC are not calling for investment in research to build empires for themselves. This is about jobs, about securing the future," Prof Mortell says.
Recently, the managing director of a large Cork pharmaceutical company emphasised the point. He told the UCC president his company's competitive advantage came from the quality of the graduates on its payroll. Up to half the company's staff were graduates and the figure would soon rise to 60 per cent.
Prof Mortell says: "That's a serious statement. And the reason the graduates are of such high quality is that the universities are active in research, enabling their graduates to keep up to speed with developments around the world. It is accepted now that we have a graduate shortfall and there's panic.
"They wouldn't listen when we told them that the seed corn for attracting high tech industry to Ireland was more investment in university research. They wouldn't listen because they did not want to hear - they wanted it on the cheap.
"All the White Papers in the world on research are useless unless the investment is put in place. Investment is being treated as some sort of social welfare gesture. The point is being missed that it is crucial for the future of this country for us to invest in areas that will attract the companies who will create the jobs.
"I would go further and say that the point is being cynically ignored," the academic says.
How can the graduate deficit be measured? Here's a telling illustration. Prof Mortell says he is aware the top executives in one of the Republic's biggest industries have told the IDA they are no longer willing to allow their plant to be used as a showcase. This happens when the IDA is courting a new company.
Very often, the agency will bring potential investors on a tour of the more successful plants as an example of what Ireland has to offer - an example of the quality of Irish graduates. But the executives of this company are not anxious to help any more. Their concern is that due to the graduate shortage, new companies coming in will have to poach from those already established here. It has become a question of minding what you have.
"One of the problems is that the Department of Finance says no to everything. For two decades, they have believed there was no need to invest in research because of the demographic trends - and for two decades they have been wrong," says Prof Mortell.
He cites the fact that the annual allocation for equipment in the seven Irish universities is £2 million.
"That's what I call petty cash. Consider this when a laboratory at the National Micro electronics Research Centre in Cork was destroyed by fire four years ago, it cost £10 million to replace it. It doesn't hang together. There is almost no funding for basic research, despite the fact that we in Ireland are holding our own in this area. It's as simple as this - you will not have a high tech economy without adequate research investment.
"The universities warned the Government about the upcoming graduate shortfall but the message was not heeded. If you want to expand what you have - and get more, then there has to be an adequate level of investment for science, etc, in the universities. That's the critical message, because, in our age, wealth is created by information and knowledge.
"The other comparison I would make is that the IDA can invest up to £200 million annually in capital grants for industry yet the universities who supply those industries are not seen as being worthy of investment. We are missing an opportunity.
"My commitment is to this country and to this university, but I'm afraid to say the message is already getting out that Ireland does not have enough graduates meet the needs of high tech industry. That is creating a negative image for Ireland, but there is a mind set in the civil service towards the issue of investment.
"And I repeat, in the universities, we are not seeking funding simply to expand our empires. We are seeking investment in research to create jobs - in Ireland's future," Prof Mortell said.
And that the universities do play a critical role in many ways is beyond doubt. In 1990, when not a lot was happening in Cork in terms of construction, UCC was investing £7 million in new campus infrastructure - creating jobs and giving a crucial boost to the city. Its building programme has gone on since.
The seven universities - under the umbrella of the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities, of which Prof Mortell has been president, have emphasised the need for research investment.
If the universities are right, there may come a time when lack of research in this area will bring exactly the results they have been predicting.