Head over to our T
Priorities Science or Arts funding.
Read more about: Economy 
With the recent results showing that Ireland was only middling in Science and Maths people were wondering why, why can we not improve this. Well One of the reasons is this. From the Irish Times
An additional €12 million has been earmarked for higher education research, bringing the total Government spend on science, technology and innovation to €133 million next year.
So we will spend €133 million a year on Science technology and innovation in 2008. Compared to €245 million on the Arts. Considering that physics based industries alone (not even touching bio-tech or pharmaceuticals ) have a share of the countries turnover close to 10% and construction. While Arts contribute next to nothing to that figure, do we have our priorities right? Is the Arts twice as important to Ireland as Science.
8.2bn euro is earmarked for scientific research and development under the National Development Plan, with at least 658m being made available each year. I suspect the figure of 133m relates specifically to higher education research.
The funding for scientific research in this country is not a problem; making sure we get a return on this investment is the challenge.
I was always under the impression that the arts were underfunded in Ireland. Certainly the people who become successful in this field tend to do it without any government support.