The Government has agreed to set up a commission to ensure the ongoing €2.41 billion National Development Plan investment in research is money well spent. Its first role will be to identify international "best practice" for the control of State investment in science.
Concerns had arisen that there were insufficient controls over the unprecedented level of spending under the NDP, according to an informed source within the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the Department that brought the proposal to Cabinet last month.
"There was a lot of noise in the background, people saying it was too confused," according to the source.
The Government response was the creation of the National Commission for Research and Innovation, set up under the advisory body on science, the Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (ICSTI).
"They are going to establish a commission, an eight-person group with a mixture of backgrounds from both within and without the country to advise on best practice," according to the source. "They have a particular orientation towards competitiveness."
The Cabinet decided the move on March 20th and ICSTI met to consider the decision on April 9th. The ICSTI chairman, Dr Edward Walsh, is to chair the commission, and ICSTI deputy chair and chairman of Siemens Group Ltd, Mr Brian Sweeney, is understood to have joined the new body.
The ICSTI, on behalf of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, will appoint four more members and the Department of Education and Science and the Department of Health and Children will nominate one member each.
The ICSTI was now assessing candidates from Ireland and abroad to fill out the commission, according to Dr Walsh, who said the body would have "a strong international component".
The group is expected to assess practices in other countries and make recommendations on how to oversee the ongoing investment in research and innovation here.
The body would have "a short fuse", he added. "We have to report by the end of December 2002."
The Republic was not the only state involved in this activity, he said. "Most countries are struggling with the problem of optimising a framework where the state can work in close co-operation with the private sector."
About €635 million has been invested in research so far with the involvement of various Government departments and new and existing State bodies.
