Mr. Robert Watt:

I sent this out in my report, which I sent to the Taoiseach last year. We had further discussions about setting out our serious intent that we needed to enhance research funding. This was across many different university departments and organisations within the third level sector. Last year we spent almost €1 billion on research funding across the system and the Health Research Board, HRB, had over €50 million. We wanted to show that we were serious about a commitment to start a conversation about investing significantly in research funding. Previously, in July 2022 the Government agreed a policy around enhancing research funding to improve our pandemic preparedness so we came to the view that we needed to set out more intent. As I set out in the letter, as the Deputy is aware, the details had to be worked through and there were many things that had to be worked through. Unfortunately, the matter was leaked before we were able to finalise all of those matters.