Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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29. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the progress in establishing a TechShop as provided under the Dublin action plan for jobs; the funding that has been allocated by her Department towards this initiative;; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6322/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The ‘Manufacturing 2020’ strategy highlighted the need to establish a facility that provides shared, subscription-based, access to high end, rapid prototyping equipment, software and expertise, to facilitate development of new products and solutions.  TechShop is the recognised international provider of such ‘maker spaces’ and DCU has been working with the TechShop team to develop a suitable business model to bring TechShop to Dublin.

In that context, Action 35 of the Dublin Action Plan for Jobs is to ‘Develop a proposal to establish a Dublin ‘maker space’/TechShop as a catalyst for the hardware start-up ecosystem, based on its potential as a self-sustaining model over the medium term’. DCU is the lead organisation for this Action.

A TechShop Dublin operation would require substantial host city funding. Dublin City Council have committed to supporting the TechShop initiative with DCU, subject to available budgets and contingent on the provision of additional matching/bridging sums being forthcoming from relevant stakeholders.

Support to develop the project is under discussion among a variety of stakeholders, including both public and private organisations.