Budget 2022 allocates money for soil sampling, data centres and new foreign missions

€4m has been added to the budget for the nighttime economy, while another €400,000 has been added to help Ireland attract high-level sporting events

Wed, 13 Oct, 2021 - 16:42

Paul Hosford, Political Correspondent

New foreign missions, a data centre and a soil sampling analysis make up just some of the lesser-spotted measures included the Budget.

While topline figures in health, housing and social protection grabbed headlines, the expenditure report lays out a number of items which may have gone unnoticed.

In agriculture, this includes €15m for the introduction of a second phase of the Soil Sampling and Analysis programme. Started in September, this programme aims to provide farmers and their advisors with comprehensive details about the soil health and soil condition on their farms.

In the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, there is €3m committed to the establishment of European Digital Innovation Hubs by Enterprise Ireland. These are research facilities which provide access to research infrastructure, technical expertise and experimentation so that businesses can “test before invest”.

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The Department of Foreign Affairs will open new missions in Lyon, Miami, Toronto and Dakar during 2022, and is putting extra resources into the passport office to meet demand "in particular related to anticipated increases in applications for passports not renewed earlier due to Covid-19 travel restrictions".

Items in health include €8m for the reform of the National Ambulance Service and €30m for the implementations of the recommendations of the Nursing Home Expert panel, dementia services and other related initiatives, as well as enhanced Community Support Teams and the pilot of the Safe Staffing Framework for long-term residential care.

The Department of Housing, meanwhile, will spend €8m to cover growth in operational costs for An Bord Pleanála and the establishment of a new agency to regulate development in the maritime area, the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority. The Department of Justice says it will provide €25m for the completion of Forensic Science Ireland's state-of-the art lab in Backweston, Kildare.

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The Department of Public Expenditure is spending €64m on a retrofit of Tom Johnston House on Haddington Road in Dublin which houses the Geological Survey and WRC, a new data centre in BackWeston and a Building Energy Retrofit Programme.

The Department of the Taoiseach will spend €4m on Covid-19 communications in 2022, with a further €1.5m to provide for Online Census Pilot training for the Central Statistics Office.

In the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, €4m has been added to the budget for the nighttime economy, €400,000 to help Ireland attract high-level sporting events and an additional €6.6m for sports capital grants in 2022. The Department of Transport will begin works on the long-built but never opened Kishogue station in west Dublin and will fund the first round of the Safe Routes to School walking programme.