Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is not our intention to exclude. Amendment No. 27 relates to applications from recognised trade unions for the status of vetted researchers. It is grouped with amendment No. 28, which has the same intention for applications from non-governmental organisations.

Article 40 of the DSA provides that the digital services co-ordinator can grant the status of vetted researcher to an applicant if they meet all the conditions set out in subsection 8 of that article. The first of these conditions is that the researcher or researchers must be affiliated to a research organisation as defined in Article 2.1 of the 2019 EU directive on copyright and related rights in the digital Single Market. This defines a research organisation as a university or other entity whose primary goal is to conduct scientific research or to carry out educational activities involving the conduct of scientific research, either on a not-for-profit basis or pursuant to a public interest mission recognised by a member state.

This amendment seeks to provide that a recognised trade union, or an NGO in the case of amendment No. 28, should be deemed to be an applicant under this condition, pursuant to a public interest mission. I am not sure every trade union, as envisaged by the Deputy, could be defined as a research organisation within this. While this Bill sets out the process Coimisiún na Meán must follow in relation to vetted research applications, including notification of refusal or revocation and enabling the applicant to seek review of this decision, it does not define the conditions that the researcher must meet. As the Deputy has acknowledged, these are directly effective from Article 40.8 of the DSA. Any researcher is, in our view, entitled to apply for the status of vetted researcher under subsection (1) of the new section if they meet all of conditions set out. The amendment as currently framed may go beyond those conditions.

While I cannot accept the amendment, I will engage with the Deputy after the meeting. I do not want to inadvertently exclude people who are qualified in this space, but I do not want to open it up to people who-----