Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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45. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his assessment of the operation of the disruptive technologies fund; the amount allocated to the fund since July 2020; the impact of this funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30038/24]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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The Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) is a €500 million challenge-based fund established under Project Ireland 2040. It seeks to invest in the development and deployment of disruptive technologies and drive collaboration between Ireland’s world-class research base and industry.

A total of 104 projects have been approved in the first six Calls with an approved allocation of €371m in total. To date, my Department has provided over €138.5m in funding for the project partners from the €265.5m in DTIF Budget allocations in that period.

The fund is delivering strongly across several enterprise and research objectives. DTIF funding has helped to leverage an additional €222m in private sector research funding from the 194 SMEs and 52 MNCs in collaborations with 147 research performing organisations in every region across the country.

The successful projects address our six national Research Priority Areas and are helping to deliver on commitments in the White Paper on Enterprise, especially in relation to advancing innovation, achieving decarbonisation and promoting digital transformation.

The Call 1 and 2 projects have or are nearing completion, with projects going on to win further European funding. My officials are working with Enterprise Ireland to continue to identify the project outputs and outcomes.

My Department will shortly initiate a stakeholder consultation exercise to obtain the views of all stakeholders on, inter alia, how effectively the Fund meets their needs and considerations for the future strategic direction of the Fund post 2027.

I launched a seventh DTIF Call last May and consortia can submit applications at any stage from now to the deadline on 30 April 2025.