James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

I am delighted to be here to open this debate to mark Science Week 2025. As Minister for science - in fact, I have a long title and science is a key part of it - it is so important we mark this event and occasion. The Irish physicist John Tyndall once observed, “Knowledge once gained casts a light beyond its own immediate boundaries.” Ireland’s future lies in its people. Through supporting our innate curiosity and by encouraging our latent talent, Ireland can play a leading role in addressing key challenges and drive competitiveness into the future. As a small, open economy without obvious natural reserves of oil or gas, our natural resource is knowledge and our competitive edge is talent and our people.

When science moves, everything around it moves also. This is what we sometimes call the "halo effect". A breakthrough in material science leads to warmer homes and lower bills. An artificial intelligence model becomes a faster way to diagnose and treat cancer. A new bioprocess becomes a new regional employer. For everything there is a catalyst and then there is a reaction, and often there is a chain reaction leading on to the applications and impact of the research and the science, as well as the science itself.

One story captured this very well. During my recent visit to the Tyndall National Institute in Cork, in the middle of a discussion on microneedles, quantum materials and future technologies, the team there mentioned a graduate of whom they are very proud, Dr. Ann Kelleher, who began her journey in UCC and went on to lead the technology development at Intel, becoming a vice president globally of Intel's technology chain. Her success continues to ripple around Ireland because every time a global company looks at our research capability, every time a young student in Cork imagines a career in science and every time a team at the Tyndall National Institute secures a new partnership, Dr. Kelleher's achievements, and those of so many more like her, are part of the reason and part of the inspiration - if you can see it, you can be it. It is also a great beacon for Ireland in those international boardrooms. That halo effect of one person's education nurtured here went on to create opportunity far beyond themselves. During Science Week 2025, when we celebrate curiosity, talent and possibility it is a reminder that the next Dr. Ann Kelleher may already be sitting in a classroom, visiting a Science Week event or engaging with scientists for the first time. Last night, I had the opportunity to visit the Posters in Parliament exhibition in Leinster House 2000. This involves a team of young undergraduate researchers showcasing their work in an exhibition in Leinster House, one of five parliaments around Europe that will give that opportunity to young researchers. All of those young students are the scientists, groundbreaking engineers and rising stars of the future.

It is through that investment and activity in research and innovation that we will deliver a step change in areas such as environment, technology and healthcare. Fundamental blue sky research can provide new answers to questions we have not thought of yet and drive paradigm shifts like those we see in AI and quantum. I am told that quantum computers will be able to perform calculations in seconds that currently take up to a year on a regular computer. Frontier discoveries sometimes seem abstract but they are what gives us vaccines, clean energy and digital tools. Many of the key technologies and innovations of modern life came about by accidental discovery. They were not the outcome of the initial experiments; they were something that was found along the way but which became a seismic shift in the relevant field.

As the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, I am conscious of my role in not only delivering a robust research and innovation system today but also ensuring that we develop the talent and skills to create, nurture and maintain our world-class research system into the future. A critical element is ensuring that the public are aware of the broad range and value of current research activity and that science and technology are something all our citizens are comfortable engaging with, are aware of and are happy to discover more about. I am delighted, therefore, to have the opportunity to highlight the range of Science Week 2025 events taking place across the country to celebrate the vital role that science plays in our everyday lives. The theme - "Then. Today. Tomorrow." - encourages all of us to explore how scientific research has evolved over the years, assess the role science plays in our lives today and look to the future to consider how science might shape tomorrow. From its origins as a small series of outreach events launched by the Royal Dublin Society in 1995, the initiative has grown to become a truly interactive and countrywide calendar showcasing the marvels of science. Now co-ordinated by Taighde Éireann-Research Ireland, Science Week has become a key event across Ireland connecting young and old with science through a broad range of opportunities and events. I am delighted that my Department has continued its support for this year's programme, with over €847,000 in funding provided for 36 projects through Research Ireland. During the week, almost 400 events, involving 200,000 participants, will be hosted in schools, libraries, theatres, town halls, community centres, markets, homes and other venues nationwide. Somewhere, maybe in many places, in those 400 events are our future clinicians, climate scientists, engineers, farmers and entrepreneurs. These are the people who will write the next chapter of Ireland's story. I am looking forward to attending a few of the events. Later this afternoon, I will launch the Museum of the Moon festival at Merrion Square, which runs from this evening until Saturday. This features a 7 m illuminated moon sculpture mapped using NASA imagery and offers visitors an extraordinary opportunity to experience the moon up close, complemented by musical performances.

I thank Members of the House for the support shown for Science Week. I very much want to reach out to colleagues in the Chamber and beyond because there is very strong collaborative cross-party support for Science Week and the initiatives that flow from it, as well as for science, research and innovation as a policy more broadly, in the course of our mutual work here in the Oireachtas and through the engagements Members have in their constituencies and communities, and policy initiatives more generally. Scientific research has an enormous influence on almost every aspect of our lives, from healthcare, technology, transport, agriculture, food and climate to education, sport, well-being, entertainment and so much else. Ireland is very much leading, having a long-established Science Week that has co-ordinated nationally and is delivered and hosted regionally. We were one of the first countries to see the importance of promoting science nationally in this way and have created opportunities for education and public engagement with science and research. This builds on the success of the recently hosted maths week only a few weeks ago. Weeks like this, and these outreach events, are so important to reach out to the next generation of researchers, academics and students and showcase what is possible, as well as bringing to bear with a wider audience some of the applications of science in everyday life.

Our international standing as a nation that greatly values science is reflected in landmark achievements. Last month, on 22 October, Ireland officially joined the European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN. We are now an associate member state and we are taking our place among the nations of the world. In so doing, we have entered one of the world's most prestigious scientific collaborations, opening the door for academia and enterprise to rise to the next level in terms of scientific innovation. Ireland joining CERN had long been an outstanding ambition of mine. When I was in opposition I advocated for Ireland's associate membership of CERN. Previously, as a student and long before I was a Minister, I visited CERN on a couple of occasions and I was shocked at how Irish students at that time had to effectively go in the back door. Ireland did not have access and students could not participate. Irish companies could not tender. That is all now addressed through our membership and Irish people can proudly walk in the front door and be very much part of the team, collaborating and benefiting from all that this bestows upon us. CERN membership means opportunities for Irish firms to win contracts, for students to gain experience at the frontier of physics and for our regions to benefit from skills and the know-how that flow back.

Of course, CERN is about leading-edge particle physics but it is also about so much else. It is about data science, data storage, reflectors, electromagnetism and engineering, even to the extent of tunnelling and creating every new round of the Large Hadron Collider. For example, we see new partnerships emerging. I was at Munster Technological University last week, at the Tralee campus. I spoke with some of the team of engineers who are working at CERN on the ATLAS experiment. They are working on technical challenges in terms of the power supply and supporting of the CERN detectors that actually pick up the collisions inside the Large Hadron Collider.

Primary school students around the country this week are taking part in an instruction on data science as part of the physics run by CERN and hosted by the Microsoft Dream Space. This kind of pioneering advancement can only happen when backed by significant Government support, as reflected and called out in the programme for Government which I am now implementing. This makes significant commitments in support of research and innovation. I am pleased to tell the House I have secured funding to enable us to deliver on these commitments through transformative investment under the national development plan in research, education and innovation, all of which will secure long-term returns for Irish society and our economy. A strong economy powers a strong society because it creates the resources that we can use for the public good.

In a watershed moment, and in keeping with the theme of "Then. Today. Tomorrow." when we look back at the initiatives and moments that have the power to change the landscape of research and science, over half of my Department's €4.5 billion national development plan capital budget will now be earmarked for research and innovation initiatives. This allocation recognises my Department for what it is, namely, an economic Ministry with levers that shape productivity, resilience and long-term growth across the whole wider economy and society, and my prioritisation of research and innovation as a key enabler for economic and social progress.

The recently published action plan for competitiveness and productivity also places front and centre the centrality of research and innovation to Ireland's future economic performance. This theme was also writ large in the Draghi report and the Letta response, which we saw across the European Union. To be competitive, we must excel at science and invest in research. This outcome and prioritisation within the national development plan and within my budget are a recognition of the need to invest in that national research and innovation system as an engine of our knowledge economy. This planned investment in research infrastructure is both critical and timely because we want to continue to maintain our international reputation for research excellence and for fostering exceptional research talents. We need to modernise the equipment the students and researchers are using and bring it into the 21st century and beyond. Working off old equipment limits discoveries and also the student, teaching and learning experience. Renewing it ensures that every graduate is being trained on the tools of tomorrow and not yesterday.

Research infrastructure is light on concrete but heavy on capacity creation. It creates opportunity without overheating or placing undue demands on the construction sector, and it compounds in value through ideas, skills and innovation.

It can be quickly ramped up, it can deliver at scale and it does not have the complex process that surround physical infrastructure. In addition, the budget announcement of an increase in the research and development tax credit from 30% to 35% demonstrates our commitment to industry in terms of partnering research sector collaborations in academia and enterprise.

One of my hopes for initiatives such as Science Week is that they will help young people to discover a love of science, technology, engineering and maths, STEM, and ultimately develop careers in the STEM field, perhaps even going on to be researchers. Putting the arts into STEM to get STEAM is equally important, as we teach people how to think and assess a set of facts, and how to apply a lens, whether through history, economics, literature, languages or the core STEM subjects.

Research talent is a priority for the Government. It is essential that we build on our research capacity, developing and extending our talent base, and increase the level of research and development being undertaken to support it. The Department, working through Research Ireland, supports the development of excellence in research talent through all phases of the research and innovation pipeline, from early career, frontier and blue skies research to programmes of scale, such as its research centres which foster large-scale collaborations across academia and industry. Between 2020 and 2024, over 2,500 PhD students were funded through Research Ireland through a suite of structured PhD and post doctorate programmes that provide a pipeline of highly skilled researchers for careers in academia and industry.

It is also important to look further afield and welcome top tier international research talent to Ireland. Doing so expands our research talent base and allows the cross-pollination and fertilisation of ideas, with new thoughts from outside our normal circles. We are now inviting these talented individuals here, many of whom are uncertain of where to turn next with changing global events and different priorities for science in other jurisdictions. Ireland offers stability, opportunity, excellence and a warm welcome to researchers on the move. We also offer a gateway to the European Union.

In that vein, I recently launched the Global Talent Ireland programme, which represents a critical initiative in the current global environment to attract outstanding international researchers to Irish higher education institutions and to join public research bodies. There has been a remarkable response to this call, which clearly demonstrates the timeliness of the initiative and our position as a beacon to attract world-class research talent. We stand ready to welcome these researchers who aspire to make a meaningful impact, economically and societally, in their fields and disciplines, while advancing their careers here in Ireland. By investing in global research talent, we are also strengthening Ireland's own position as a hub at the heart of Europe for research excellence, innovation and opportunity.

We have international engagement across Europe and we are strengthening Ireland's position as a hub of European research excellence by maximising opportunities for researchers to collaborate on key emerging technologies. I am ambitious for Ireland to be a change maker and not a change taker, and to be a maker and shaper of new technologies. In June, I signed Ireland up to the European quantum pact, which allows Irish scientists and researchers to engage with their EU counterparts in the field of quantum, building on our own expertise in this area. Quantum technologies represent an important part of Ireland's aspirations in the field of deep tech, owing to their vast potential to impact critical strategic domains, including semiconductors, life sciences, sustainable energy, financial services, cybersecurity, climate modelling and much more.

Another development which gives local researchers access to state-of-the art European and international resources is the recent successful AI Factory Antenna bid, led by the ICHEC team and the University of Galway. I had the pleasure of visiting them on Monday morning and I was impressed by their excellence and commitment to leading class research using high-performance computing and supercomputers. They are particularly enthused that joining the European quantum pact and the EuroHPC agreement allows them to collaborate and pitch for ideas. For a team that was not even participating in the initiative until a few months ago, I am proud to report to the House that it came second out of 14 in the bid it put in, based on excellent science. Well done to ICHEC and the University of Galway. These breakthroughs open doors for researchers, developers, public bodies and institutions across Ireland. They provide access to cutting-edge infrastructure, expert support and European AI networks. From climate to health to transport to advanced manufacturing, this will accelerate innovation across every corner of our economy and society.

Al is recognised as a key priority for the Government, and my Department provides support in the development of a national digital and artificial intelligence strategy, working with the Minister, Deputy Burke, and the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, who have a specialist focus on the area. How artificial intelligence integrates into our lives is of concern to all of us, as it increasingly impacts how we do business, how we work and how we interact with other people. It has great potential to enhance our lives and transform the way we live and work by creating efficiencies and helping us find solutions to some of our greatest challenges.

The power of technology can be used to bring knowledge together in many new ways. There is a real prospect of accelerated scientific discovery. We can run the same experiments faster and more repeatedly and capture the vast data flowing from them to make real breakthroughs in many fields. It is already happening, in fact, and my role is to ensure that Ireland is at the table and playing a significant part of it, and ensuring the skills and research ecosystems are up to speed and leading edge so our researchers and academics can play a major role. There are also huge opportunities commercially for companies in Ireland to develop AI capability but they need the talent to work with it. We provide a broad range of skilling, upskilling and reskilling initiatives, including through the funding of PhDs in disciplines involving digital technologies and their application.

We know also that AI must be developed in an appropriate regulation, with policy that allows for innovation but prioritises the safety of its users and ensures that biases are mitigated from the outset. We must challenge the limitations of data sets, the AI slop we talk about and the model becoming perpetuating, and ensure quality responses and outputs from large language models. The ongoing need for cutting-edge research in this rapidly evolving area is now impacting on almost every area in its work.

Research Ireland is also a key lever in enabling our AI technological progress, providing the talent, skills and career paths into high potential sectors engaging with AI, particularly in the pharma, medtech and data science areas. AI has boundless possibilities, which are only beginning to be understood, and I am intrigued to see how this subject is going to be explored during Science Week. Research Ireland centres have had a huge impact on innovation and economic development, linking researchers in partnerships across academia and industry in areas of strategic focus. I will be announcing the launch of the new programme of globally competitive research centres in early 2026. These research centres will drive research and innovation in areas of national strategic importance, building connectivity with industry and supporting regional development, while providing PhD training aligned with future skills needs and enhancing our chances of success when competing for European funding. Critically, they will drive academic collaboration with industry and others to maximise knowledge transfer from our higher education institutions to the wider economy and society.

These centres, alongside the accelerating research to commercialisation, ARC, hubs, give SMEs a front door into innovation so the benefits of science are felt throughout the country, in Athlone and Letterkenny as much as in Dublin and Cork. Another approach to driving innovation to market is through the ARC hubs that I mentioned. The ARC hub programme aims to transform cutting-edge, publicly funded research into market-ready applications and innovations, fostering regional development and boosting economic growth and activity. All of this work takes place in the context of the Impact 2030 strategy, which is bringing greater cohesiveness and effectiveness to our national research and innovation system, forging closer links between the Department, Research Ireland, the Higher Education Authority, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland.

We continue to forge closer links across the research and innovation ecosystem. As the Minister with the research and science portfolio, I was delighted to mark in September, along with Enterprise Ireland and other partners, the achievement of reaching the €1 billion milestone in funding drawn down through the Horizon framework. Irish agencies, business and players helped to take the framework to the next level and achieve a €1 billion drawdown in Horizon funding. This represents a significant national achievement and is a powerful endorsement of Ireland's capacity and our growing strength as an innovator on the European landscape. Reaching this milestone has been made possible through the collective efforts of our research community, our universities and enterprises, and the robust partnerships we have built across Europe. As we look ahead, we expect that the final work programme publication under Horizon Europe will be launched before the end of this year. This will open future opportunities for Ireland's researchers and innovators to build on this success and continue to shape Ireland’s scientific future.

In recent years, we have made enormous progress in developing a thriving research and innovation ecosystem and we will continue to build on this momentum. Over the coming years, I want to deliver on the promise of this sector, forging a more cohesive and collaborative system, boosting and modernising the infrastructure which enables it and maximising the capacity and impact of the system as an economic engine for growth to future proof it and make it more diverse, agile and capable of not just withstanding but of responding to and shaping the opportunities of a rapidly changing world. I commend Research Ireland on its leadership role in supporting and co-ordinating science week in a very visible and very inclusive way. I congratulate Dr. Diarmuid O'Brien, the new CEO who recently taken up office, on his leadership of the organisation.

Science week plays a key role in demystifying many of the complexities of science and bringing it to every town and community in Ireland. I thank all of the teams involved in science week for their valuable contributions, creativity and imagination and for instilling an appreciation of science, research and innovation, especially among our younger people. I would like every young person in Ireland to feel that science belongs to them in order that they can follow their dreams and realise their full potential. I thank the Business Committee of the House for scheduling the time to discuss science week today and its value in generating public discourse and raising awareness of the critical role of science in terms of our past, present and future.

We live in a time of rapidly accelerating change and of exciting new opportunities and breakthroughs in our understanding of the universe. As George Bernard Shaw put it, “We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.” That is a responsibility that all of us in this House hold dearly and that we are fulfilling through initiatives like science week and the research initiatives we have discussed. I want our young people, our up-and-coming research and innovation talent, to see this as a time for curiosity - curiosity is always a good thing - and a chance to write the next chapter of Ireland’s success story. STEM and science are for everyone, and science week is a fantastic opportunity to open the door for the next generation and let them see their own potential futures in the world of science and to unleash a new halo effect of ideas, skills and discoveries that will bring benefit to every community in this country.

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