Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. We have had many conversations on this legislation. I understand that this particular amendment is technical in nature and I have no issue with it. I wish to make a few general points that I have not made previously, which are important. It is a pity amendments that I and others tabled were not considered to any great extent. I refer to parity of esteem between disciplines not being mentioned specifically in the Bill. I believe it could have been spelled out better. There was also no agreement that the board of the new body would comprise a majority of researchers, which was an oversight. Further, there was no explicit mention of research to support the public good which, again, is an oversight.

Before I came into this brief, the Minister of State had worked with a lot of different people and had taken some of their concerns on board. The aforementioned are some of the concerns that I would still have on the legislation. However, I accept that we are where we are and that we are moving on to the final stages of the process. I really hope that this has been done right and that it will breed success in the coming years because it is extremely important for the State. We will have to take it from here. I just wanted to raise those points again but I have no issue with the amendment before us today.

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