Ireland is set to invest more than €90 million over the next five years in strategic European Space Agency (ESA) programmes which will put high-tech Irish companies and researchers in a position to exploit the growing global space economy to the maximum. It is expected that the investment will lead to the creation of more than 1,000 high value technology jobs in Irish industry by 2020. Training, Skills and Innovation Minister John Halligan, along with Ministers with responsibility for space within the 22 ESA member states and Canada, gathered in Lucerne, Switzerland to decide upon the ESA’s objectives for the coming years. The meeting, held every three years, offers Ireland the opportunity to contribute to setting the agency’s strategies and policies. Along with budget considerations, agreements are made on whether to start new programmes or bring an end to old programmes. Ireland will be continuing to participate in a number of programmes including Earth observation, satellite communications, next generation launchers - such as Ariane 6 and Vega C - and satellite navigation, among others. “We are seeing space-based technologies becoming increasingly critical to our everyday lives, whether is vehicle navigation, environmental monitoring, managing our national resources and emergency response, said Halligan. “In addition, we are seeing growing commercial opportunities for Irish companies related to space and satellite technologies including satellite Internet/IoT, commercial space launch vehicles, use of satellite data for environmental protection and climate change monitoring. “Our investment in ESA will continue to underpin the Irish growth in this and related sectors and I hope that we can invest additional funding in the coming years as the industry base continues to expand and as even more commercial opportunities arise,” he added. Given the high level of technology innovation in Ireland, Irish space companies are ideally placed to gain a significant share of the global space market and are already expanding rapidly into it. The number of companies in the sector is expected to expand to over 80 by 2020, generating annual revenues of more than €150 million by 2020.