Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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125. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent to which European Union grant support continues to be made available to indigenous Irish companies in both the manufacturing and services sectors in respect of innovation and technology in the past four years and in 2015 to date; the extent to which such support is expected to continue in the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12570/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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EU framework programmes for research and innovation provide Ireland with valuable mechanisms for firms – indigenous and multinational - to further their innovativeness in products, services and processes. These programmes are also a critical source of non-Exchequer funding for this important economic activity.

The current EU framework programme for research and innovation is Horizon 2020 (H2020). It has a budget of close to €80bn. and runs over the period 2014-2020.

The fact that Industrial Leadership is one of the 3 pillars on which H2020 is built is indicative of the importance the EU attaches to speeding up development of the technologies and innovations that will underpin tomorrow's businesses.

H2020 stimulates SME involvement right across the whole programme, with a particular focus on close-to-market support. At least €8.7bn in EU support will make its way to SMEs who participate in EU collaborative research and innovation projects during the lifetime of H2020. Irish companies who successfully compete for funding from this source will boost their innovative capability.

Ireland has set itself an ambitious target of €1.25bn over the lifetime of H2020. Our strategy to achieve our H2020 target is being driven by the H2020 High Level Group, chaired by my Department.

The H2020 national support system is based in Enterprise Ireland. Through a national office and a network of national contact points in the relevant programme areas of H2020, information and support is provided to enterprise and researchers to facilitate their engagement with the opportunities available under H2020.

Under the predecessor framework programme to H2020 – FP7 – which ran from 2007 to 2013 – Irish companies and academics won over €620m. This funding provided a considerable increase in their innovative capability.