We had a good discussion in the Seanad last Friday. During the debate on this Bill in Dáil Éireann, Deputies were very supportive of its objectives but they raised a number of concerns to them. I was happy to amend the Bill to address some of those concerns and I would now like to outline for this House the areas where amendments were made and the reasons for those amendments.
Section 2(3) deals with the auditing of the accounts of the fund by the Comptroller and Auditor General. In this House, Senators were concerned to ensure that the accounts would be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas within a strict time limit. In the Dáil, Deputies were concerned to ensure that, in addition, the accounts were submitted to the Comptroller and Auditor General within a time limit. I accepted this approach and the subsection now provides that the Minister must submit the accounts to the Comptroller and Auditor General within three months after the end of the financial year.
Section 4(5) provides that the moneys may be provided from the fund for the purpose of enabling institutions to make use of the outcome of research for commercial purpose where such activity is carried out in accordance with guidelines drawn up by the Minister for Education and Science. Deputies were of the view that, in order to ensure adequate supervision of the operation of this provision by the Houses of the Oireachtas, the guidelines should be laid before the Houses. The amended subsection now provides that the Minister for Education and Science must lay the guidelines before the Houses within three months after they have been issued.
I ask the Cathaoirleach to ask the Clerk to make a versional correction in line 10, page 4 of the Bill, by inserting commas around the phrase "but not later than three months". This arises from the amendment made to this provision in Dáil Éireann.
