James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Professor Emmanuel Tsesmelis visited Ireland in July 2018, at my invitation. I travelled to CERN, on my own steam, in March this year to meet him with an Irish delegation that included Professor Ronan McNulty from UCD. I was very impressed with the facilities and the capacity at the institute but the lack of Irish involvement was striking. We are, in fact, precluded from further involvement until we join. The Minister met Professor Tsesmelis. I know the Minister is keen to progress it and we have discussed it on a number of occasions.

Multiple benefits would flow to the Irish science and research community, beyond particle physics and the accelerator. They include semiconductors, electronics, big data and computer science among many others, but we have to be in to avail of them. There is a multiplier effect, as there is with most of these agencies. For every €1 we put in we would get back between €3 and €7 in the form of contracts for Irish companies, research opportunities, scholarships, funding and staff positions for Irish nationals so there is a very strong case for joining. This week the Joint Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation met a number of experts in the area, who gave a very strong presentation and made a strong pitch for joining and there was strong cross-party support for the presentations.

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