Dr. Deirdre Lillis:

With regard to the intention of the heads, fundamentally we are creating a new State agency, so we would be working under the code of practice for State agencies. The board composition under the code of practice is 12 members, including a chairperson, appointed through the Public Appointments Service. We are listening very carefully to these deliberations in respect of the make-up of the board.

We have to strike a balance between that sort of governance piece, which one would expect in any State agency, and ensuring the right voices from the research and innovation sector are also in the room. As the Deputy can probably hear from the submissions, it is a bone of contention. There are perhaps two different models historically where the Irish Research Council, IRC, was a research council with active researchers. Science Foundation Ireland, SFI, and I would not describe it as a corporate governance board, would have tended towards that side of the spectrum. The key to this will be striking that balance and using a set of competencies, where if we can get people with those competencies in the room, it should lead to better decisions.