Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

For amendments Nos. 20 to 23, inclusive, in this section, we are referencing Government, Ministers of the Government and bodies, whether statutory or otherwise, which are funded, wholly or partly, by public moneys because we are aligning these funded bodies together into a cohesive national funding system.

Engagement with multilateral institutions, local authorities or trade unions is of a different order and is not appropriate here. Engagement with multilateral institutions such as Science Foundation Ireland's, SFI, engagement with Irish Aid is led by the relevant Government Departments and this is captured in the existing provision. Engagement with all other bodies referenced in the amendment is also captured within the existing provision. Therefore, there is no need to include very specific lists, which, as previously discussed, have unintended risks attached, such as risking unintended omissions or lists being read as being in priority order, which is not the intention.

The broad provision here already creates the capacity for the agency to engage with any body within the research and innovation ecosystem. For this reason, we do not propose to accept the amendments. The role of the Oireachtas is clearly defined elsewhere within the legislation in sections 3, 23, 25, 30, 31, 33 and 62.For amendment No. 22, the broader reference to enterprise encompasses the detail proposed by amendment No. 22. This is a broad principle. The specific action of the functions at section 9(1)(d), which refers specifically to the regional development and enterprise development, would contain social enterprise and SMEs. For this reason, we do not propose to accept that amendment.

Finally, the objects are intended as high-level principles. The existing provisions are deliberately open and proportionate in that they only create limitations to the agency as much as necessary. We do not wish to get into creating lists or inserting prescriptive detail in these provisions, which is an inherent risk attached. We also need to be clear we are aligning and creating greater cohesion for the existing public research funding structures. For these reasons, we do not propose to accept the amendments.