Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We hear what Mr. Deenihan is saying. I will move on to the next question, which is related. I will direct this one to Dr. Prendergast. I share his ambition for the TUs and agree that we need to think about the investment we need to make to produce the world-class institutes they have the potential to be. Developing the research capabilities in the technological sector is key, as Dr. Prendergast said. Horizon is a €100 billion fund to support research and is a good proxy for research performance in institutes. It is also a vitally important source of funding for the institutes of higher education. Since 2014, Ireland has drawn down more than €1 billion worth of research funding. A full €680 million of this was drawn down by third level institutes and the rest by private companies. However, less than 10% - €53.7 million - went to the institutes of technology and the TUs. To highlight the issue further, the institutes of technology that make up the ATU have only won €1.9 million since 2014 or just under 0.2% of Ireland's total. I believe we can catch up and bridge the gap, but not without doing something very different to what we are doing now.

Dr. Prendergast outlined in his statement some of what needs to be done to address this disparity in research capacity but does he see the future funding announcement as sufficient to achieve that? I am very conscious of the resources that are needed in order to be able to access and draw down that funding in the first instance. What do the TUs need?