Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 28: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if he will require all third level institutions to establish an on-line database of research dissertations which have merited graduate awards subject to reasonable conditions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44333/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Irish Higher Education Institutions are currently involved in the development of open access repositories — online storage and retrieval systems where published research findings and papers are stored and made available for full, open and free access by the research community and the general public.

In a project funded under Cycle 1 of the Strategic Initiative Fund, a number of Irish universities have developed open access repositories of their own and are now engaged in the development of a national open access repository system by connecting the repositories of each participating institution for fuller public accessibility and to increase exposure of Irish University published research.

Recently, Irish research funding agencies have begun the implementation of an 'open access' policy for publicly funded research. The Higher Education Authority (HEA) has developed a policy on open access which will be implemented for all future research funding calls. Where a research publication arises in whole or in part from HEA-funded research, researchers will now be required to file their published research papers in an open access repository as soon as is practical, but within six calendar months at the latest.

Other agencies that have also adopted an Open Access Policy include the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET), Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and The Health Research Board (HRB).

Aside from its benefit to the academic and research community, the move towards open access will make theses and other research outcomes generally available to the interested public and is to be welcomed.