The Government unintentionally cut Irish science funding by 15% in last December's budget and the cuts did not trigger the usual howls of protest. Why should anyone be surprised with unintentional spending increases?

Junior minister for innovation  Conor Lenihan said on Tuesday, that all public spending on scientific research is to be treated as if it were a single budget item as and from the next budget.

Lenihan said research spending fell by about €140 million in 2008, 15% of the total. The cuts arose from reductions made by departments that invest in research, including enterprise trade and employment, education and agriculture among others, which selectively trimmed their allocations for research.

The Irish public spending system is a relic from the Victorian era and Finfacts has repeatedly highlighted the self-serving secrecy and bizarre system which does not produce cross-departmental data on spending.

For an outsider to get data on say spending on for example IT (information technology) across the 15 central government departments, the data would not be directly available.

Fifteen Freedom of Information (FOI) requests would have to be submitted to departments and the applicants would have to pay the cost of the work involved by civil servants. If data on local authorities were required, some 34 requests would have to be submitted.

It would take months for the information to be supplied and would very likely, not be complete.

In a system of limited accountability, is it any wonder that spending has been allowed get out of control?

The Bord Snip/McCarthy report recommended that responsibility for all State science spending be taken over by a single department.

All Lenihan has promised to do is to have science funding listed as one line in the public spending estimates. 

The junior minister was speaking on Tuesday, after the launch of a new €14.8 million research centre, Systems Biology Ireland, to be based at University College Dublin,"involving 69 highly skilled people."

SEE Finfacts article: The Waste Land - - Bord Snip, Irish Public Spending Transparency and the motto "Never do anything for the first time"

“Today’s investment establishing Systems Biology Ireland is clear evidence of the Government’s ongoing commitment to further enhancing Ireland’s cientific base to aid our economic recovery,” he said.

Pictured centre: Conor Lenihan TD, the minister for science, technology and innovation with Professor Frank Gannon, director general of Science Foundation Ireland (left), and Professor Walter Kolch, director, Systems Biology Ireland (right) at the announcement of Systems Biology Ireland

Systems Biology is termed a powerful new way to use the strength of computers and mathematics to understand biology. It seeks to unravel the complexities of cells through the use of models that predict biological behaviour. The research being undertaken will enable quicker and better treatments of a range of medical conditions, including various cancers, and should allow for better therapies to be delivered more effectively to patients. The new research centre is also being supported through the "significant contribution" of industry partners who include Ark Therapeutics, Hewlett Packard, Servier, Agilent Technologies, Siemens Ireland and Protagen AG.

“I am very excited by the potential economic and societal benefits likely to accrue to Ireland from the research being undertaken by the Systems Biology SFI CSET. It is one of the critical emerging areas in the Life Sciences worldwide. Ireland is now very well placed to become a world leader in this field given the very strong foundation we have here in the pharmaceutical and IT sectors. It should greatly assist the IDA to attract further high-end Foreign Direct investment and also allow Irish SMEs to grow. This centre, with its deep-rooted academic - - industry partnership, encapsulates the essence of what our Smart Economy should and can be,” Lenihan said.

Ministerial aspirations and the credibility gap with reality apart, were the cuts only noticed when the money started running out?

Again that rises further questions about the spending process.

Recall last week's story on the Comptroller and Auditor General's report for 2008, which cited how the Farm Waste Management Scheme (FWMS), which had no cash limit, initially had a budget estimate of €248 million but farmers have been paid €550 million in grants for the building of slatted sheds and slurry tanks so far and the scheme is now expected to cost €1.1 billion in total. Then there was the €27.3 million which vaporised on a dud public web portal and so on.

Last June, the C&AG reported on €400,000, which was spent by State agency Science Foundation on another dud IT project.  

The toleration of monumental incompetence all seems so incongruous with the goal of being to the forefront of world research. The litany of waste could well be a background chorus for the mantra on the "smart economy."

When the world was awash with easy credit, we could wing it with overpaid amateurs. It's a different story today.