Mr. Tim Conlon:

It does to some extent but, as Ms Kenny said in respect of other aspects of the legislation, there is a bit of working out to do. We have a new Department coming together which has a remit across higher education, research, innovation and science, which is a real opportunity. There is work ongoing on the national research and innovation strategy. The shape of that strategy, when it emerges in the later parts of this year, will probably have an influence on national science policy. There is sufficient opportunity to look at that balance. As a number of members, including the Cathaoirleach, stated, there is a piece around balancing that basic research with the applied sort because one never knows what the next challenge is going to arise. Nobody saw the pandemic coming or that there would be a need for epidemiologists, for example, to manage the response. Luckily enough, we happened to have a couple on hand. It is about that balance in the system. There is the economic endeavour and applied research in terms of meeting an industrial needs and obviously an economic need but there is also that part about knowledge for knowledge's sake, that is to say, there are certain disciplines we need research in to progress the discipline and to progress thinking about aspects other than just the economic or social. The balance piece will be important to watch and it will be interesting to see what comes through in the national research and innovation strategy later on this year.