James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy mentioned the IUA paper published in March. I actually appointed the IUA to my working group and it is actually actively involved in it already. It is an excellent organisation and it is worthwhile to have it in the room for these discussions. The other thing I will say about the programme as I currently envisage it and through my work with the expert group is that it is intended to be a competitive funding call. It will not necessarily be a case of something for everybody but, rather, will be based upon excellence and submissions being made as part of a competitive process. An independent panel will assess applications. That is how the PRTLI was done before and it is how best-in-class funding applications in the research sector are done. It will not be automatic or immediate. Funding is the first step. The next step is the framework around the funds, such as what type of projects, equipment and research is being supported. I intend to cast a wide net because we should not be excluding any particular areas, although naturally there are Government strategic priorities.

The IDA strategy was published recently. Things such as digitalisation, healthcare resilience and climate change are all core to its goals. I would put the semiconductor strategy into that mix as well. It is important. Cabinet recently adopted the national semiconductor strategy. The Deputy will be as aware as I am of the importance of Intel in our own constituency in Kildare North and of other organisations such as AMD and others throughout the country. They are all areas in which we have real global competitiveness. We are experts in those areas, have made significant progress in them and will continue to support them.

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