Teknovis

As always, I am delighted to read about the Irish Government investing in third and fourth level education. I am a product of the education system, so I am very familiar with how important this is to the Irish economy.

Today’s announcement is that the Government will invest 296€ million over the next six years. For more details see Govt commits €296m to third level research. (The article appears to confuse third level and fourth level.)

This certainly is great news, but part of it deeply concerns me:

The money will be spent funding buildings and also directly on individual research projects.

The article then continues:

Overall the funding announced comprises €260m to be spent on infrastructure and almost €100m to spend directly on research projects.

I really hope that I am wrong, but this looks like a construction industry investment rather than a research investment! The Government (through NAMA) already owns more property in this country than anybody else. A lot of this property is commercial, and it is currently unused. This really makes me wonder who is the Government trying to support by creating more buildings!

It really is depressing, especially since this is not the first time that this has happened. For example, I wrote about this in Irish Government Research Investment. I have many friends currently involved in research in the Dublin Universities. There certainly is a shortage of money. However, I do not think that any of them would prioritise buildings above more people or equipment!

As an aside, I wonder how much of the previous 300€ million is being included in today’s announcement.

Tags: Ireland