Section 5 is in a sense the essence of the Bill. The effectiveness of the board lies in that it has the power of making over practically the whole field, financial recommendations which are likely to be accepted and most certainly will be influential in any Government allocation of funds in the area concerned. Section 5 is therefore, in one sense, the guts of the Bill. It is very difficult to see how any other approach could be adopted to a body of this nature.
However, I would like to urge on the Minister the need, which he has to some extent conceded in his Second Reading speech, for a very broad view and balance here, and also the need for whatever Government are there to be very much alive to the fact that this is a recommendation and an information, not a mandatory thing, that the responsibility for making the decision and for the allocation of funds will first be on the Ministers in various Departments concerned and then on the Minister for Finance, and finally there will be the collective decision of the Government. All of the these active powers will need to keep in mind the balances, practical, short-term and long-term, that are involved, To concentrate purely on current and what seem at the moment eminently practical things so exclusively as to exclude long-term thinking and academic research, which is always or usually fundamental to the matter, would be a mistake. With that caveat that somewhere in the administrative machine there should be this warning and guidence written into the Bill. I agree with this proposal. There is no amendment apparently that one can think of that can perfect the section. As I say, it is the guts of the Bill and if we rejected the section we would be rejecting the Bill.