Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

152. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the way in which he is ensuring that increased public expenditure focuses on enhancing our competitiveness, supporting diversification and innovation of our enterprise sector, and investing in our national infrastructure; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27904/25]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

In line with the commitment in the Programme for Government, Government has prioritised an early review of the National Development Plan, which will be published in July. The Review will allocate funding to update capital expenditure ceilings out to 2035 and will significantly increase investment in our national infrastructure.

In total, around €97 billion in capital funding will be allocated until 2030, which reflects an almost €20 billion increase from current NDP ceilings. The core focus and intended impact of this increased investment, is to fund the supporting infrastructure to enable the delivery of 300,000 additional homes by 2030 and to boost our competitiveness.

With regards to enhancing our competitiveness, the Government also recently agreed to expedite the development of the Action Plan for Competitiveness and Productivity with the Plan due to be discussed at a Competitiveness Summit this July. The Government further agreed that the development of the Plan would be coordinated across the relevant Departments in order to ensure that the review of the National Development Plan and the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity are consistent.

In addition to the measures that will be outlined and addressed as part of the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity, the Government also agreed to proceed with a series of other short-term measures which can be actioned. These included the development of a Government Action Plan on market diversification.

This year, through the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Government has allocated €159 million in funding - including from the European Regional Development Fund - to Enterprise Ireland’s Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) programmes. These programmes come together under three foundational activities: Direct support for in-company research and innovation; Research Collaboration; and Commercialisation of Research.

Direct support provides grant funding to companies’ in-house RDI projects developing novel, market-ready products and services. It also invests in HPSUs from research, provides investment at a critical time for High-Potential Start Ups as they emerge from our Third-level Sector.

Through Research Collaboration, EI is strengthening collaborative innovation between industry and our third-level sector through programmes such as Innovation Vouchers and Innovation Partnerships. These programmes are designed to promote collaborative innovation from the first tentative steps to multi-partner, sector-based projects and every stage in-between – ensuring innovation is supported at every level.

Commercialisation of research activities directly supports the transfer of research and innovation generated by the Third-Level Sector into our enterprises.