Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I am grateful for the opportunity to address the House. On Committee Stage in the Seanad, I brought forward one technical amendment that relates to an additional section being inserted, section 71, "Confirmation of acts done or purporting to have been done". This is a technical amendment to provide full clarity and continuity of the related provisions in the Statute Book in advance of the establishment of the new funding agency, Taighde Éireann or Research Ireland.

There was a technical oversight within SI 586/2020 on the transfer of ministerial functions order. The operation of one of the amendments to the existing statute preceding the 2020 order was complex and this resulted in the omission of three provisions. This has been resolved and the proposed amendment just ensures clarity and continuity of the statute. When the Research Policy and Programmes (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order 2020, known as SI 586/2020, was being compiled that year the usual checks of existing statute would have been performed. From the manner of presentation in the Statute Book it would have appeared that all of the relevant provisions were captured in sections 19, 20, and 21 of the Industrial Development (Science Foundation Ireland) Act 2003. However, the Industrial Development (Forfás Dissolution) Act 2014 operated upon these provisions in a complex manner and this was not immediately transparent from the statute. This meant that they were not precisely captured in the 2020 transfer order. This was discovered in the course of finalising the drafting process of this Bill. The Department has been advised that it would be prudent to ensure complete clarity and continuity of the statute in advance of the enactment of the Bill. That is the reason for this amendment.

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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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.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for her contribution and input. I thank all Deputies who have indicated their support for this Bill. I also thank the Senators who contributed to a lengthy debate in the Seanad on the Bill and I thank the officials from the Department for their work on this. Hopefully, it will represent a new horizon for the research community right across Ireland, which is a really important part of our economy and our educational institutions. The new body will contribute to the betterment of our country as we move forward. We have to think about the future and the establishment of this new agency will certainly go a long way towards achieving all of our goals.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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