Dr. Lisa Keating:

With the new agency, we have an opportunity to do all the Senator has described. Research can do much more than it is currently being funded and invested in to do. There is a great opportunity here. If we are to realise that opportunity, we have to fund across all of those disciplines. We have to give individual researchers the opportunity to use their creativity to create new knowledge we do not even know we need. The priority areas in ten or 20 years' time will be different from what they are now and will be set, to a certain extent, by the research conducted. Colleagues have talked about bringing researchers into the dialogue, conversation and governance structures, which is key because it is the researchers who are looking to and designing the future. That is important. Having this agency being able to go across disciplines and to focus on that creation of new knowledge is key.

The Acting Chairman mentioned the language in the Bill. The intention seems to be there, but the language in the Bill tends to contradict the intention. My background is in Enterprise Ireland. The enterprise piece is important and key in the economy, but this is an opportunity for it to do even more. Making sure the language is fully reflective of that is very important. If one is talking about including a wider number of higher education institutes, one is talking about more researchers and it being applied in more areas. The only way one can do more is by providing investment. We need individuals to be able to do all of that; the PhDs, postdocs and academics. They need to be able to live.