Mr. John Hughes:

I would make two points from my perspective in the Department. The first is that the IDA would always operate to value-for-money principles in terms of ensuring that for all the grants, each grant agreement has performance targets, performance metrics and deadlines by which they are to be reached. Failure to do that is a contractual breach with all of the consequences that one can take from that. Second, in the annual Estimates process, when we give the IDA its capital allocation, voted through by the Oireachtas, that is subdivided across the various areas, such as grants for industry and support for the ecosystem, such as the likes of NIBRT, Digital Manufacturing Ireland, Tyndall and so on in the semiconductor sector. We know what the allocation is looking to achieve under the various headings, and that would include consultancy.

Currently, if we analyse the IDA grants, subject to my colleagues correcting me, I think nearly three quarters of them are for research, development and innovation investments, and the next significant one would be for training and talent development. We would see that continuing.