Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The capital allocation of €450 million for the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation next year will ensure continued strong support for job creation and enterprise supports, with a focus on building on our recent strong export performance.

Another critical component underpinning future growth in jobs is sustained investment in research, development and innovation. The combined research and development funding provision for Enterprise Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland next year is over €260 million.

This will enable us to leverage significant new funding opportunities externally from industry partners and the European Union.

Society - Social Protection

Economic recovery without a commensurate social recovery is obviously not an end in itself. To that end, I am allocating €19.4 billion to social protection next year. I am pleased to be able to tell the House today that next year will be the first year since 2009 when there will be no cuts to social welfare schemes.

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