Irish firms risk being locked out of €150m funding due to lack of security clearance system
Ireland has no national intelligence agency, so companies cannot be screened and may miss out on sensitive contracts under EU tendering rules
Irish companies are at risk of being locked out of €150 million of state-supplied EU funding due to the lack of a proper security clearance system.
Companies bidding for sensitive cybersecurity, aviation and space contracts need to have been vetted by a national intelligence agency, under EU tendering rules.
But there is no facility in place for Irish companies to get this designation because the country does not have a standalone national intelligence agency.
The Business Post has learned that Irish companies and universities are worried that they will miss out on access to grants from the EU’s €8 billion European Defence Fund (EDF).
