David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the committee meeting. This seems like fairly technical stuff. The Department has saved some money through the Vote for Enterprise Ireland, EI, and is redistributing it through different mechanisms. I have just a few questions. Regarding the humanitarian flood relief scheme and the funding of €550,000 for it, am I right in saying that that money was not paid out but will be paid out - in other words, that decisions have been made that the money is to be paid to companies, businesses, sporting organisations and so on that were impacted by floods last year? I think I am correct in saying that that is what the note stated. The Minister of State might clarify that that is the case and that that money is already accounted for and needs to be paid. Is that funding in addition to other such funding that has already been made available in this regard?

I am interested in the investment fund. There is a lot going on there. It is quite good and will crowd in a lot more funding from the private sector. The Minister of State may not have the answer to this here and now, but it has been brought to my attention that some Irish companies, when they reach a certain scale, cannot go any further and are very often sold off at that stage. Some of these companies will have received funding from the Department, that is, from EI and so on. Has the Department done any research into how these companies can be maintained in Irish ownership and continue growing rather than being sold off?

The Minister of State mentioned the base component. I know there are a range of Sentinel satellites and so on involved here. Could he give us some examples as to how Ireland is benefiting from the leading-edge research and work going on in this regard?

Those are three questions under three levels of funding the Minister of State has brought forward.

Finally, regarding advanced research in telecommunications systems, is the Minister of State satisfied that our mobile phones are safe from hacking? We are now reliant on a number of carriers out there. There are three or four very large carriers. I do not think any of them is based in Ireland. How satisfied is the Minister of State that we - politicians, business people and so on - are safe from being hacked? What work is the Department doing to ensure we can guarantee people who invest in Ireland that the telecoms platforms we use here are secure?