Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

I welcome Ireland's associate membership of CERN and, like others, I would encourage our moving towards full membership. I acknowledge the work done in this regard by the Minister, by Deputy Malcolm Byrne and by the previous Oireachtas. We really need to focus on the many positives coming out of this. The most important thing to bear in mind is that we get far more out of our associate membership than we put into it. There are opportunities for PhD students, researchers and staff and also in terms of the contracts that will be available to Irish companies in the future. Studying physics in secondary school, I was surprised to learn Ireland was not a member of CERN. It is great to see this step forward. I welcome our associate membership and look forward to seeing us progress to full membership in the future.

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