Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the witnesses for attending. I apologise for missing the opening remarks. I was in the Chamber. I apologise if I am going over old ground. I think the Department's response to an intense crisis in a short time was exemplary. I acknowledge the questions of my colleagues about reviews and ensuring that public money was spent wisely. I note what the Comptroller and Auditor General said a moment ago. I think it is right to say that the majority of businesses applied because they needed the funding to keep their companies afloat or in abeyance for the period of the pandemic. The feedback that I have got has been positive. The engagement by the Department was excellent. I will start from that basis. It is important that we review the money and the various grants.

God forbid that we are in another similar situation and we have to respond quickly. We are obviously going to need to learn from the various situations and the grant systems we put in place. The local enterprise offices, LEOs, were excellent and the fact we had that local network and an ability to channel money out to businesses, some of which we had been engaging with already, was very important. I commend all the local authorities and other organisations on their work.

In the Department’s briefing note, at part 3, on page 16, a point of interest to me was the funding in regard to the European Space Agency. How much is Ireland contributing to that? I note that, in 2020, 87 Irish companies were under active contract with the European Space Agency, representing a 45% increase in activity since 2016, which is very good to see. Some €13.3 million in contracts was won by Irish industry from the European Space Agency just last year. Will Dr. Quinn comment on that?