Saints and Scholars

national | worker & community struggles and protests | news report Friday November 24, 2006 17:24 by Sean Crudden - impero sean at impero dot iol dot ie Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth. 087 9739945

Health Research in Ireland

Soon, perhaps, the educational and developmental benefit of research will become a reality for all medical staff in Ireland. Current efforts may guarantee a better level of involvement for everybody and a greater sense of participation and ownership at all levels of health research (including environmental health) in Ireland. The aim of the report is to achieve a "step" change in health research in Ireland.

The report of the Health Research Task Force appointed by Forfás, the government’s advisory council for science, technology and innovation, was published yesterday.

New structures recommended in the report may lead to more co-ordinated, coherent and cohesive effort in Ireland in the field of health research and, indeed, it could be said that the whole area of human health in this country is ripe for research.

One remembers the story of the founder of the Philips empire who poured money and effort into all kinds of science research. He was wont to ask his researchers "And what will your research do to improve the light bulb?" Everyone knows that the most aery-faery research can have profound practical consequences but in this report the relevance of research to patient welfare is specified as a clear and unambiguous objective.

Reading between the lines one senses a level of high energy input by everyone involved. Of course one remembers the great sports commentator Micheal O’Hehir who, it was often remarked, could make any game sound like a great game.

I know absolutely nothing about the inner workings of the task force but I candidly think that the secretariat headed by Dr Lucy Cusack and Mr Declan Hughes deserve compliments for the way they handled the consultation process and got the report together in fairly short order.