David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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7. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the way he is ensuring that third-level institutions are supplied with the most up-to-date, cutting edge technological equipment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40057/24]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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How is the Minister of State ensuring third-level institutions and universities are supplied with the most up-to-date, cutting edge technological and research equipment? How is he supporting them in that regard?

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. Higher education institutions are autonomous bodies and are responsible for their own day-to-day management and operational affairs, including the management of academic affairs and how they utilise core funding allocations. As part of budget 2025, the Government agreed a total National Training Fund funding package of €1.485 billion over a six-year period, from 2025 to 2030, for the tertiary sector.

Some €150 million of this has been earmarked to support PhD students and bolster our research infrastructure.

Our support for research infrastructure must enable us to attract and retain researchers of the highest calibre and ensure they have the tools required for their research, with access to modern infrastructure and equipment. There are a number of funding programmes operating in support of this work. The Research Ireland frontiers for the future programme runs in collaboration with Geological Survey Ireland and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. It has seen €16.2 million of funding announced to increase research capacity in 15 projects led by technological universities and institutes of technology. The Research Ireland infrastructure programme supports the research community in building and sustaining the infrastructure to accomplish high-quality, high-impact and innovative research. A total of €21 million has been invested in eight research infrastructure projects through this programme in 2024. The higher education research equipment grant, worth €15 million, has been provided to higher education institutions by the Higher Education Authority, HEA. This grant is helping higher education institutions to purchase world-leading new or additional research equipment that will serve the needs of Irish researchers and their enterprise collaborators. The expenditure period for this grant is January 2023 to the end of 2025. Following the allocation of additional capital funding in budget 2025, my Department will examine how best to support the renewal and improvement of research equipment through a programmatic approach.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for telling us about the good work that is going on and the money being made available. Does he accept the finding by the Irish Universities Association in an investigation it launched recently that one third of the equipment in Irish universities is older than the original iPhone, that is, more than 16 years old, and more than half of it is over a decade old? Does he agree that this limits universities' ability to compete at the leading edge in domains of research that rely on such equipment to build in the areas of most current relevance to industry and to attract the best researchers and support them to succeed? How much would be required to bring all our third level institutions up the required modern standard? Does the Minister of State agree that having equipment that is more than 16 years old, making it out of date, is not good enough and is putting us at a really poor competitive advantage relative to our competitors?

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I agree that research equipment should be as new and as up to date as possible. We need to avoid older equipment and equipment that is reaching its end of use. In December 2023, €15 million in capital funding for research equipment across the higher education sector was announced by my Department under the higher education research equipment grant. This funding was disbursed via the HEA to 17 higher education institutions. Devolved research equipment grant funding is supporting higher education institutions to purchase world-leading research equipment that will serve our research and development needs within the industry.

Grants given in the 2023-24 year included the following: €491,000 to the Technological University of the Shannon; €768,000 to Atlantic Technological University, ATU; €470,000 to Munster Technological University; €950,000 to Technological University Dublin; €783,000 to the South East Technological University; and €211,000 to Dundalk Institute of Technology. I will furnish the longer list, showing the allocations to all the higher education institutions, to the Deputy.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for that interesting and useful information. Does he have an overall figure for the amount required to bring all our universities up to the modern, cutting-edge standard that will allow them to compete internationally? If he does not have that figure to hand, will he send it to me later? Is he aware that Mario Draghi's recent report on European competitiveness described the central role of universities in early-stage innovation, generating breakthrough research and producing new skills profiles for the workforce? The amazing work going on in areas such as artificial intelligence, AI, with all its advantages and challenges, medical technology, ICT, agrifood, biopharmaceuticals and renewable energy is underpinned by a strong supply of high-skills talent, cutting-edge innovation and the best technology possible. Will the Minister of State give an assurance that every effort will be made to ensure our universities are operating at that level?

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I will ask the Department to let the Deputy know whether we are in possession of the figure he is seeking regarding equipment that needs replacing. I will revert to him on that for sure.

High-performance computing, HPC, is linked to the points Mario Draghi made, as referenced by the Deputy. In August this year, the Minister confirmed the appointment of an expert panel to review the high-performance computing service requirements for the research and innovation community in Ireland. Internationally, high-performance computing has reached an inflection point and some investment options are now of a magnitude not foreseen at the outset of the provision of existing services to the research and innovation community in Ireland. This has triggered the need for an independent strategic review to determine the most appropriate path forward. This strategic review process will assess demand for the national high-performance computing service from researchers in the higher education and enterprise sectors. The expert panel will make recommendations on the optimum service model to meet this demand and will also address the associated governance and funding models. Irish researchers are currently using an interim HPC service based on an EU computer that is part of the EU's network of supercomputers until a long-term sustainable model of HPC provision can be determined. The report of the expert panel is expected by the end of this year.