Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Apologies if I did not speak to amendment No. 9 earlier.

I will speak to amendments Nos. 9 and 10 to make it easier. I assume the Minister is well aware of the intent of these amendments but it is just to give a stronger commitment to supporting internationally funded award success. I note the Minister's own amendment No. 8 and I would like to strengthen that. My view of the support was that given the importance of leveraging EU funds as well as international funds for the ecosystem, it is imperative that the language in the Bill be consistent. That is why I proposed amendment No. 9.

On amendment No. 10, because I know we have spoken on a few amendments there I wanted to get in on this as well. We want to emphasise the public good as a key output of research, which sometimes I feel it can be lacking. I am not suggesting it is lacking by the Department or anything like that but sometimes when we discuss research, the first thing people ask is what the monetary output will be. I had quite an interesting conversation with someone who does drama with children and he said that every time he goes for funding the first thing that he is asked is what the monetary value that comes out of that is. The output is that the children have fun. With regard to research it is really important that the emphasis is on the actual public good rather than necessarily the commercial and enterprise benefit. Obviously all of that is still there and that is why I felt that including "the promotion of the public good" is of benefit and can only add to it. That is my line of thinking on it. I am not suggesting that is not something that is not seen as part of the Bill but it is good to explicitly recognise that as well.