THE Minister of State with responsibility for science and technology hopes to develop the brief to a point where it achieves full Cabinet status in its own right.
Mr Michael Smith was appointed Minister of State with responsibility for science and technology in the Departments of Enterprise and Employment and Education earlier this week. His role, he said, was to develop and better integrate the research being done by academics and industry.
"The thinking is not to take away from anything that has happened up until now, but to broaden the rem it so as to be better prepared on the industrial and educational fronts to take full advantage of the opportunities", he said yesterday.
Opposition and industrial sources had expressed concerns about possible conflicts in the decision by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, when announcing his Cabinet last week, to move responsibility for science to the Minister for Education. The outgoing minister of state for science, Mr Pat Rabbitte, warned that the integrated approach to science built up in the Department of Enterprise and Employment would be "smashed".
"It was never the intention to divorce these central activities from Enterprise", Mr Smith said. Many aspects of science and technology were "interwoven into Enterprise and Employment" and would remain there.
He had yet to make a decision on the future of the Office of Science and Technology (OST), which is based in Enterprise and Employment, but said that he supported the Science, Technology and Innovation Council, set up earlier this year to advise the Government on policy matters.
He was seeking a "unified structure" which would develop and merit Cabinet status over time.
Mr Smith paid tribute to the work done by Mr Rabbitte while in office, adding that he hoped to build on this. He also said that the Fianna Fail policy document on science would provide a basis for Government planning in the coming months.
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