Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 January 2019
272. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the location of each SME regional innovation and technology cluster; and the amount of funding allocated to each such cluster in 2018 and 2019, by county, in tabular form. [2403/19]
View answerIn Budget 2019 I announced an additional €2.75m to Enterprise Ireland for the creation of new ‘Regional Innovation and Technology Clusters’ linking the Institutes of Technology with industries, sectors and skills. This new fund will help to build on existing facilities, expertise and supportive capabilities across the regions. This will support SME productivity and innovation, entrepreneurship and start-ups through inter-institutional collaboration and help to build optimal sectoral clusters to scale and internationalise enterprise across the regions.
Regional Innovation and Technology Clusters will see a further scaling of the capability of the Institutes of Technology (IoTs), in a planned, internationally ambitious way, that creates centres of excellence for both, thereby generating high-levels of entrepreneurship and spin-outs in the regions supporting firm-level innovation, increasing productivity growth, scaling and globally competitive companies. This will support the Government’s drive towards transforming the enterprise potential and performance in all regions.
As this is a new initiative to help drive regional development, my Department is working closely with Enterprise Ireland to successfully roll out the initiative in the coming weeks and months.
