Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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152. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide estimates for the amount academic libraries in third level institutions spend each year on accessing electronic serial subscriptions such as academic or paid subscription journals. [32881/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Funding for the substantial proportion of access to electronic-journals is coordinated through IReL, a highly successful shared service.  IReL is an essential element in Ireland’s research and education infrastructure delivering access for students and staff of all seven universities and the RCSI to over 30,000 journals as well as databases and e-books. It also underpins key areas of research funded through national bodies, such as SFI, IRC, EI, HRB and Teagasc, and through European and international funding streams. IReL promotes research among others by attracting principal investigators from across the globe with its unique depth and wealth of content, and by supporting them throughout the lifecycle of research: from preparing a grant application to the publication of research output in high-impact journals. Access to all major research fields is ensured by IReL licences.

Currently DJEI fund  Science Engineering and Technology (€5.7m was provided in 2016), while Humanities and  Social Sciences  are funded by the Department of Education and Skills via the HEA’s core grant allocation to the seven universities (€4.104m in 2016). A third grant provides access to two journal collections by EBSCO to the institutes of technology via their core grant at €221,000.  Higher education institutions may also pay from their own resources to access electronic journals in addition to IReL.