Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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104. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation her views on the fact that for the first time in 21 years the Government has given Ministers and their officials the right to decide on the funding of research projects under the new disruptive technologies innovation fund as part of the National Development Plan 2018-2017. [25931/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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In May 2018 the Government agreed in respect of the four funds under the National Development Plan, that is, the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund, the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund, the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund and the Climate Action Fund, that each Fund will have an advisory board with civil servants and experts from the relevant sector as members, and final decisions on financial allocations would be approved by the relevant Minister. As part of the corporate governance arrangements under the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund, I as Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, will establish such an advisory board and also a panel of independent international experts to assess applications and to mark and rank these applications based on pre-defined criteria. The advisory board will oversee the full process and will send all eligible proposals to the international panel for scoring and ranking. The international panel’s recommendations will then be brought to me as Minister for a final decision on financial allocations to successful proposals.