Professor Jennifer Todd:

We need a three to five-year research programme and this needs funding for at least an administrator and some academics and ways of collating and collaborating. Regarding whether this is within the existing unit, I work in the Geary Institute in UCD and Dr. McEvoy and I work with ARINS in the Royal Irish Academy while there are units in Trinity College, DCU and in the North. It is not up to me to say which institution it should be in but we do need a three to five-year programme that is well funded and can mesh survey research, which is very expensive; advice on big citizens' assemblies; and small-scale co-ordinated research. The research centre needs to be connected to the Civil Service because we need expert help in accessing people and accessing local councils and so on. Two of us cannot do it. It has to be inter-institutional. As the Deputy noted, we have worked with Fidelma Ashe and her colleagues such as Eilish Rooney. Theresa O'Keefe is doing similar work in UCC so a lot of people are doing this.