A BILL to establish the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) on an independent basis was pressed to a vote by Fianna Fail.

The Bill was introduced last week by the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Mr Pat Rabbitte, who said the change was required by an EU ruling that the NSAI should be "seen to be independent of all other client agencies".

The FF deputy leader, Ms Mary O'Rourke, proposed postponement of the Bill for six months to allow the concerns of staff involved to be resolved. On a division her motion was defeated by 60 votes to 34. The second stage was passed and the Bill was referred to a Dail committee.

Ms O'Rourke said there was scope for bodies such as NSAI to become subsidiaries of Forbairt. This would be preferable to setting up another stand alone agency and would prevent a proliferation of new State agencies.

Ms Helen Keogh (PD, Dun Laoghaire) said the establishment of the NSAI as an independent agency would strengthen its role in helping industry to meet the technical, quality and safety requirements of international markets. State organisations were responsible for up to one in four workers and there were signs of a quality management deficit in the public sector. If the blood transfusion service had operated a quality management system she wondered if the problems which arose with regard to Hepatitis C would have occurred.

Mr Sean Ryan (Lab, Dublin North) asked for an assurance about the jobs of those affected by the proposal.

Mr Pat Upton (Lab, Dublin South Central) said the proportion of contract to permanent staff was three to one, which meant that most staff were on year to year basis. That made it impossible to build up a scientific base of expertise. Workers were constantly searching for jobs.

The Minister, replying, said he had already had extensive discussion with staff representatives about the proposed change. The other issues raised could be debated at committee stage.