Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The increased capital allocation I secured for innovation in Budget 2018 will enable Ireland to join the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in 2018. The once-off joining fee for ESO will be approximately €14m. However, the payment of this fee can be ameliorated over 10 years. The recurrent, annual cost of membership will be approximately €3m. The exact costs and scheduling of the payments is subject to negotiation and agreement with ESO.

There is no joining fee for CERN and the recurrent, annual cost of full membership of CERN would be approximately €15m per annum. Associate membership is available for 10% of the full cost, or approximately €1.5m per annum. However, there would be a commensurate reduction in benefits with associate membership.

In view of the intense demands on the capital programme and the tight fiscal constraints it will not be possible progress membership of both CERN and ESO in 2018. Nevertheless, membership of CERN will remain on our policy agenda and my department will keep the issue under active review.

Membership of ESO has been prioritised over membership of 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.

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.