Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 376: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the State investment to date in the digital hub; if he has satisfied with the return on investment to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11553/07]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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Since 2000, the State has invested EUR €93.75 million in the Digital Hub project. That sum comprises an initial investment in property purchase of €73.64 million for circa 9 acres in the Thomas Street/Liberties area of Dublin. State of the art telecommunications infrastructure investment came to €2.29 million.

The remainder of the amount is made up of operational expenditure. To date, the Agency has received exchequer assistance of EUR €15.3 million in order to meet its performance targets. Total private sector investment in the Agency has amounted to EUR €3.4 million. Additional investment has been, and continues to be, undertaken by firms who choose to locate in the Hub.

In terms of growth, the Agency has grown the cluster to 80 companies now employing over 500 employees in the Hub. These enterprises are involved in a range of activities including gaming, software development, mobile technology, animation and TV production.

Estimates suggest that the Global Digital Media industry will be worth over EUR €1 billion by 2009. I have no doubt the digital media space will be a real platform for the next wave of innovative Irish entrepreneurs to flourish. Currently in Ireland there are between 400-500 companies in this space, employing almost 3,500 people. In 2003 there were few foreign owned digital media companies in Ireland. Today 20% of the Digital Hub companies are foreign-owned.

In order to support the development of the Hub and expand the number of high value added jobs in the Digital Media industry, I announced in November 2005, the acceptance of tenders for two separate sites in the Digital Hub area. In return for 6 acres of land, the State will receive a combination of €72.4 million in cash and €45.7 million in high quality offices, which will accommodate digital enterprises as the Digital Hub grows. The break down of the tenders means that the Digital Hub will receive over 150,000 square foot of office space by 2012.

From an economic perspective this shows a reasonable return for the State. However, the Digital Hub has delivered significant returns from an educational and social perspective. The Diageo Liberties Learning Initiative (DLLI) provides a distinctive approach to digital literacy in teaching and learning within schools in the Liberties area and offers a viable template in terms of advancing progress towards a system that allows teachers nationwide to use digital tools in a cross-curriculum manner.

DLLI also holds considerable potential to address the digital imbalance in this locality whereby technology has become a resource that can address the needs of the local community, empowering participants to accustom themselves with the digital age.