Professor Philip Nolan:

I will let Dr. Lillis speak about the intent of the legislation. However, it seems to me that the intent of the last head is that the State could identify strategic priorities and invest in those. That is desirable and it is the European norm. Normally what happens, such as in the context of a strategy like Impact 2030, is that the State sets out investment into fundamental research or research across all disciplines and investment into some specific missions. It is a normal practice in Europe for national funding systems to identify some strategic priorities for the system. It does not take away from that broad fundamental and applied base that one is building across all disciplines. Yet, it concentrates resources on things that society and the Government deem to be important.