Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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18. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if funding will be provided for Ireland to join CERN in order that Irish businesses, scientists, researchers and students can benefit from the advanced scientific research taking place there. [43034/17]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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25. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if her attention has been drawn to the fact that Ireland is one of the few European countries not to be a member of the European Southern Observatory (ESO); her plans to avail of the opportunity provided in view of the significantly beneficial membership terms that Ireland has been offered by ESO, which are time limited to 2017, and in further view of the significant research and commercial benefits of Ireland joining ESO; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42764/17]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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26. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation further to Parliamentary Question No.17 of 11 September 2017, if further consideration has been given to Ireland joining the European Southern Observatory in view of the benefits to Ireland which would ensue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43029/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 18, 25 and 26 together.

Innovation 2020, the national strategy for research and innovation, recognises that in order for Ireland to become a Global Innovation Leader, our research and innovation system must be open with strong international collaboration links. Membership of leading International Research Organisations is an important mechanism for facilitating this engagement.  For this reason, the Government gave a commitment in Innovation 2020 to explore Ireland's membership options with CERN and also the European Southern Observatory (ESO). 

I am pleased that I have secured a capital allocation in Budget 2018 specifically to ensure Ireland's membership of ESO during 2018.  This will cost €0.75 million in 2018 and increase to about €3 million in 2019. 

This decision to proceed to join ESO first reflects an assessment of the costs and benefits of each membership.  ESO has been prioritised over CERN because of the large, established community of astronomy researchers in Ireland. Astronomy is an active area of research in each of our universities and several of our institutes of technology.

This community is well positioned to avail of the opportunities provided by ESO membership, thereby maximising the immediate benefit to Ireland.

These opportunities include participation in pioneering frontier research, access to cutting-edge technology, commercial opportunities for enterprise, the creation of human capital and skills and the further promotion of STEM subjects in Ireland.

In addition, the companies in Ireland that have had great success in securing contracts from the European Space Agency are well placed to bid for ESO contracts due to the overlap between the technologies used by ESO and ESA. 

Joining ESO in 2018 will result in significant savings to the Exchequer (in excess of €3 million) because ESO has agreed that if we join in 2018, it will calculate the once-off joining fee using our 2014 GDP, thereby excluding the impact of the 26% increase in GDP in 2015. 

In parallel with this consideration of ESO membership, my department has also been assessing the case for membership of CERN.

CERN is a leading global scientific collaboration investigating the fundamental composition of matter. It was established in 1952 and currently has 21 member states and co-operation agreements with approximately 40 other states.

Regrettably, in view of the intense demands on the capital programme and the tight fiscal constraints it will not be possible to progress membership of both CERN and the European Southern Observatory in 2018.

I fully recognise the value of membership of International Research Organisations (IROs) and my department has an on-going objective to increase Ireland's participation in IROs. For example, in 2016 my department funded Ireland's membership of ELIXIR, the life sciences data infrastructure and in 2017 my department funded Ireland's membership of the International LOFAR Radio Telescope.

We will keep the issue of CERN membership under review and it is my hope that we will be in a position to progress CERN membership in the future, when the fiscal situation permits.