DUBLIN—An environmental institute praised for the quality of its research is being closed by the Irish government as part of a new round of civil service cuts to combat the country’s financial crisis.
About 100 environmental scientists expect to lose their jobs at the An Foras Forbartha (AFF), which was set up to do research and provide technical information for the Department of the Environment. AFF is the most serious of several blows to science in the government campaign to trim costs. In recent weeks the government has ordered the merging of the National Board for Science and Technology with the Institute for Industrial Research and Standards. The institute serves as the Irish equivalent of the U.S. National Bureau of Standards. The Council for Development in Agriculture is being amalgamated with the agricultural research body, and the Health Education Branch, which is responsible for disseminating information on such problems as ...
