Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to this amendment. It is unfortunate that the Minister has left the Chamber at this moment. I will later be pressing the amendments relating to trade unions and local authorities. I have withdrawn or not moved amendments Nos. 56, 57 and 58 in recognition of the Minister's point to the effect that naming individual research bodies might become onerous.Amendment No. 59 addresses what the Minister said about not wanting to name all the individual bodies. It is a blanket provision. He mentioned that he has discretion under the section to engage with other bodies besides Science Foundation Ireland. The other bodies may be "prescribed by order of the Minister for the purposes of this section." This only includes other bodies engaged in the provision of higher education. My amendment No. 59 states that the co-operation agreement could also be with institutions which conduct research. The Minister has stated we do not need to name all the individual research bodies because he has the capacity to incorporate them all under that subsection but that subsection only names those connected with the provision of higher education. The examples that I have given, such as the Health Research Board, or the example that the Minister gave, which was Teagasc, are not necessarily connected with the provision of higher education, but they are connected with the provision of research. I was trying to name individual bodies. I have accepted that we are not doing that, but I worry that we have not even given a blanket provision that allows for the incorporation of other bodies. I think this is probably an inadvertent omission. If it is not addressed today, it will need to be addressed in a research Bill.