I am grateful for the opportunity to address the House. On Committee Stage in the Seanad, I brought forward one technical amendment that relates to an additional section being inserted, section 71, "Confirmation of acts done or purporting to have been done". This is a technical amendment to provide full clarity and continuity of the related provisions in the Statute Book in advance of the establishment of the new funding agency, Taighde Éireann or Research Ireland.
There was a technical oversight within SI 586/2020 on the transfer of ministerial functions order. The operation of one of the amendments to the existing statute preceding the 2020 order was complex and this resulted in the omission of three provisions. This has been resolved and the proposed amendment just ensures clarity and continuity of the statute. When the Research Policy and Programmes (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order 2020, known as SI 586/2020, was being compiled that year the usual checks of existing statute would have been performed. From the manner of presentation in the Statute Book it would have appeared that all of the relevant provisions were captured in sections 19, 20, and 21 of the Industrial Development (Science Foundation Ireland) Act 2003. However, the Industrial Development (Forfás Dissolution) Act 2014 operated upon these provisions in a complex manner and this was not immediately transparent from the statute. This meant that they were not precisely captured in the 2020 transfer order. This was discovered in the course of finalising the drafting process of this Bill. The Department has been advised that it would be prudent to ensure complete clarity and continuity of the statute in advance of the enactment of the Bill. That is the reason for this amendment.
