Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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208. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to provide an update on the State’s space strategy; the number of enterprises engaged in space activity in receipt of funding by the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14702/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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The National Space Strategy for Enterprise 2019 – 2025 (NSSE) sets ambitious goals for how Ireland intends to develop an economically sustainable and expanding space-active industry, delivering quality jobs for the economy of tomorrow.

The third progress report on the implementation of the NSSE was published in August 2024, covering the period July 2022 to December 2023. There were several positive developments during this reporting period and of the 19 actions set out in the Strategy, 4 are completed and 15 remain on schedule for delivery.

Ireland manages its investment in space enterprise activity primarily through its membership of the European Space Agency (ESA) which allows Irish companies and researchers to competitively bid for ESA contracts.

In line with the NSSE, Ireland has significantly grown both its public and private investment in ESA in recent years with an almost doubling of space related spending from €21.31 million in 2018 to €40.28 million in 2024.

This increase in investment is having a positive impact on our Space enterprises as they continue to win contracts with the ESA. Since the launch of the Strategy the number of Irish based companies engaging with ESA increased by 66%, up from 70 in 2019 to 116 in 2024, surpassing the original target of 100 set out in the Strategy. Our investment is also resulting in other commercial contracts being won by Irish enterprises with established companies in the global space industry.

While under the ESA membership model, space active Irish companies are not directly funded by the State, they can avail of other State funding instruments. Under the Department’s Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund, which is administered by Enterprise Ireland, two space-related projects have been awarded funding of over €14million to develop earth observation services and for R&D in areas such as optical communications, satellites and spacecraft payload modelling.