James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support the accession to the European Southern Observatory, ESO. This is an important step forward for Ireland and for the Irish astrophysics community. I was involved in this work last year. I joined the Minister at the switch on of the international LOFAR telescope at Birr Castle. It was a great day for the astrophysics community. Some seeds were sown and some processes are in train already. The Minister and some of us talked at length on how this process might advance.

I pay tribute to people, such as Mr. Joe Hogan who was a great advocate for ESO membership and brought some of his business expertise to the process in terms of making the business case. Dr. Peter Gallagher is an outstanding astrophysicists, a person we can be proud of in the international science community but based in Trinity College at present. I know Dr. Gallagher was instrumental in making the case for ESO membership and he explained to me and many others the many benefits that would flow from it and how it would benefit the community and the level of access they would have to the equipment, facilities and research data available through ESO.

I also attended the astrophysics conference in Maynooth last year, where the key note subject on the agenda was whether we would join the ESO. I know there was delight in the community when it was announced on budget day that we were to join. I am delighted that we are ratifying this. Deputy Quinlivan asked enough questions and covered any questions I had. This is a really positive development and I am delighted to support it.

I know we will not diverge into it, because the topic under discussion is the European Southern Observatory, but since we have introduced the topic of CERN to the debate, I would like to see Ireland joining all the international consortia and research collaborations because we get so much back. Each of these groups and each of the associations have a multiplier effect. When I joined the Minister of State at the European Space Agency, about 18 months ago now, we learned about the 7:1 multiplier effect, so that for every euro invested in space technology and the space agency, one gets €7 back, between contracts awarded, research opportunities and study opportunities. The same goes for ESO, which we are ratifying today, and for CERN. In CERN the figure is more in the range of 3:1 or 4:1, depending on how one calculates it. There is a significant opportunity. I welcome the Minister of State's comments and I know from private and public discussions of his interest and commitment in the matter, so I look forward to progressing it.

I understand completely the argument about why full membership of CERN is preferable to associate membership, but it might be worth looking at the Israeli model. What Israel has done is to go down the path where one has a higher level than associated membership and one gets between 25% to 30% back, above the 10% back that one gets as an associate member and one is on a fast track to full membership. That might be a model to look at. I understand the budgetary constraints but I am delighted the Minister of State and the Department are committed to that course of action. We will have to try to find ways around budgetary constraints but I look forward to next year or the year after when the committee will be in a position to join CERN. I hope it will happen sooner rather than later.