Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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96. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the funding that was provided for in the capital plan for higher education research facilities; the funding that has been spent to date; the number of higher education research facilities that have received funding under the capital plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18748/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The funding provided to my Department's research subhead in 2017 is €40.6 million and funds the work of the Irish Research Council (predominantly funding PhDs students and Post-Doctoral researchers), HEAnet and the Irish Centre for High End Computing. This is an increase of €3 million in the annual allocation to the subhead for the years 2013 to 2016.

The Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI) has been a core instrument for the development of research infrastructure; building basic research capability and helping to drive a strategic approach to research activity in the third level institutions. There have been five cycles of PRTLI funding to date, with total investment of some of €1.2 billion. This has been invested across the sciences, technologies, social sciences and the humanities.

Under Innovation 2020, Ireland’s five-year strategy for research and development, a further cycle of the PRTLI is to be developed to support investment in research infrastructure, for the maintenance and upgrading of existing facilities and equipment. A key element of Cycle 6 will also be the development of human capital.

Since 2010 the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation is responsible for the operation of the PRTLI.