Ms Annette Dolan:

That is where we want the amendment to come in in respect of academic freedom. There has to be a balance. The research that was funded by the Irish Research Council, IRC, was very different from the research funded by Science Foundation Ireland, SFI. That was more basic and blue-skies research. It is important that we have that type of research. In the new board, I think the Minister needs to be cognisant of having that balance. There needs to be a balance between the type of research that SFI was funding, focused on industry development, research and development, and the blue-skies basic research. We need more opportunities for individuals to do that research. The SFI funding is given to broader research groups whereas the IRC funding was geared more towards individuals. It is really important to maintain that balance, particularly now with the development of the technological university sector and the emergence of that OECD report. There is an opportunity to provide researchers with proper terms and conditions of employment. We would favour researchers moving onto the assistant lecturer scale and then progressing onto the lecturer scale. It is very possible to do that and it would be a benefit to the whole sector.