Ivana Bacik (Independent)

Section 6 of the Act allows for an exemption to be made, on which the Minister of State focused. I notice that he did not close off entirely the possibility of an exemption being made in the case of externally funded researchers. Therefore, I ask that the use of section 6 be considered to exempt the particular category of externally funded researchers mentioned. It seems unfair to include these people as individuals and it is not in the interests of third level research funding in general to have them included in the Act with the implications this may have for external funding for universities and institutes of technology.