Research Funding
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-02
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James Lawless (FF), Kildare North

I could not agree more. It is something that I have put front and centre in my Ministry since I took up this office. Fundamental research is absolutely key to driving Ireland as a knowledge economy, as a society and civilisationally more broadly. It is the key to future knowledge creation, economic growth and societal resilience. It is why I created, for example, the INSPIRE research infrastructure programme, with a €750 million commitment over the term of the Government to roll out research, equipment and facilities right across every higher education authority in Ireland.
In terms of Horizon Europe and Ireland's Presidency, the Deputy rightly said that it is not just about academics. Of course, they are fundamental to it but it is also about wider society and the wider economy. I have adopted an Horizon Europe action plan for the remaining two years of the current programme. From an Irish perspective, one thing we are seeking to do is ensure that SMEs take full opportunity of the participations available to them to draw down. We have drawn down €1 billion in funding from that programme to date just in the current term but there are opportunities to draw down a couple of hundred million more within the current programme even before we get to the new one.
An action plan in respect of Horizon has been published. We partnered with Enterprise Ireland on that. I encourage SMEs that are not already involved to get involved now and make sure they draw down whatever is available for their research activities.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:14+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-02