From the 2026 budget audit
574 millió Ft for technology development — who chose the technology?
A discretionary ministerial allocation for technology development: no named programme, no market signal, and no mechanism to reveal which technology investments are worth the public's money.
Roughly 144 Ft per taxpayer per year — 574 millió Ft total, allocated at ministerial discretion to technology projects or firms of the ministry's choosing.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: technology firms or projects receiving grant support from the ministry. The unseen: the private investors and entrepreneurs who would have directed capital to technology on their own risk assessment — and whose return is now diluted by a state competitor allocating without that discipline.
Objection
"Technology needs public funding because private markets under-invest in early-stage innovation."
Answer
Where a specific externality — published research, shared infrastructure, basic science — prevents private investors from capturing the return, there is a case for public support with a narrow, published mandate. A general ministerial 'technology development' line without a named market failure and without a competitive selection process is a discretionary grant, not a response to under-investment. The private-capital ecosystem available to Hungarian technology firms is the better mechanism.
Share if you think technology investment should follow private risk judgement, not ministerial preference.
The analyst's verdict
Technology-development tasks
Rationale
Classified on the same basis as Egyéb vállalkozásfejlesztési feladatok above: a discretionary ministerial allocation with no market-price signal, no statutory mandate, and no protected counterparties. Immediate cut.
Transition mechanism
Eliminate in the 2026 budget cycle.
Affected groups
Recipient firms or projects — a discretionary benefit.
Free Society Institute
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