The Government has committed an extra £500,000 to support basic research projects, bringing to an end a troubled and uncertain time for Irish scientists.
The extra unbudgeted money will be channelled through the Measure 4 programme controlled by Forbairt via the Research Support Fund Board. It brings to £1 million the total State allocation for basic research available from this programme.
"The Measure 4 board met this afternoon. We have given them another £500,000 so they have £1 million to fund their projects," according to a spokesman in the Office of Science and Technology within the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
He said it would allow 91 research projects to go ahead, virtually the full complement of projects which the board had hoped to initiate during 1998.
Awards to projects under Measure 4 should have been made last April. But the board had sufficient money only to keep existing projects going.
The Minister of State for Commerce, Science and Technology, Mr Noel Treacy, allocated an extra £500,000 to the board from monies available to his Department. This still left many projects unfunded, but continued efforts have now won an extra £500,000.
The funding was welcomed by the Irish Research Scientists' Association.
The support came because researchers "got excited enough about what was seen as being wrong and convinced the Minister of that", according to the association's executive secretary, Dr John Donovan.
