Navy saying nothing about decision to shut IMERC

The Irish Naval Service has declined to comment directly on the decision to wind down an award-winning marine research facility in which it was a joint partner.

Entrepreneurs in the sector have sharply criticised the decision by University College Cork and the Cork Institute of Technology to withdraw staffing and funding from the Irish Marine and Energy Research Cluster (Imerc) in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork.

The decision was made on foot of a controversial 2016 report commissioned by the two colleges into the operation of Imerc — a collaborative initiative which was established jointly by UCC, CIT, and the Irish Naval Service in 2010 to make Ireland a world leader in the commercialisation of marine research projects.

The report, which was prepared by a team of consultants led by the former secretary general of the Department of Enterprise and Employment, Paul Haran, concluded Imerc was “not fit for purpose.”

Imerc was set up to facilitate collaboration among its partners including the National Maritime College of Ireland, a constituent part of CIT, and the Centre for Marine and Renewable Energy (MaREI) which is co-ordinated by UCC.

Start-up businesses which benefitted from their association with IMERC through its incubation hub on the Ringaskiddy campus have expressed anger and frustration in recent weeks following publication of the report which warned that UCC, CIT, and the Irish Naval Service were being unduly exposed to reputational and financial risk by poor public procurement, public relations and financial and human resource management at Imerc.

They claimed its findings were “inaccurate”, and failed to reflect their positive view of Imerc’s role in assisting new businesses in the marine research sector.

A number of sources close to Imerc have confirmed that the Irish Naval Service was “very unhappy” with the decision to effectively shut down Imerc.

In a statement issued through the Department of Defence — although questions were submitted directly to the Irish Naval Service — no comment was provided on its attitude to the report’s findings, or on the related decision by UCC and CIT to withdraw funding and staffing from Imerc.

The Department of Defence also failed to respond directly to a detailed series of questions about the Irish Naval Service’s role in events given its joint partnership in Imerc with UCC and CIT.

A Department of Defence spokesperson said that the Irish Naval Service continued to enjoy “a very good relationship” with both colleges.

“The Naval Service also continues to collaborate closely with both institutions in research projects through their constituent research centres and particular academic departments,” the spokesperson said.