Mr. Tony Neary:

I will try to answer all the questions I was asked. Senator Ó Céidigh asked me about the personal impact of this. I have jotted down about 20 examples but will leave it at maybe two or three. About two years ago, an employee of ours got a phone call saying her son had been seriously injured at school and had to go for surgery. She sat in traffic for an hour and a half in Parkmore, missed the surgery and only got to see him an hour after that. She did not get to the event. I had another employee who got a phone call saying her father was dying and she had to go to visit him. Thankfully, she got there before he passed away. Those are the types of stories that happen every day.

In terms of the impact it has on employees, a couple of years ago we spent a lot of effort in hiring a pharmaceutical expert. She lived on the other side of Athlone and decided not to relocate. I was worried about our ability to retain her, so a few months after she was hired I met her to see how things were going. We talked mainly about what work was like, but at the end of it I asked her about the commute. Her line to me was, "by the time I get to Briarhill I am halfway home". For anyone who does not know Galway, Briarhill is less than a mile from Parkmore.

I could even tell my own personal stories. Every morning I drop my kids to Oranmore to school before I go to work. I travel from Oranmore to Parkmore, which is about three miles. About two weeks before Christmas there was a medtech board meeting in Limerick in the Radisson Hotel. I am a member of the medtech board of Ireland. After dropping the kids at Oranmore, I was in the Radisson Hotel in Limerick ten minutes before I would have got to Parkmore. Yesterday morning I left my house, which is just off the Coast Road, travelled to the roundabout at the Galway Clinic and went from there up to Parkmore, a total journey of two miles. I left at 6.20 a.m. and got to Parkmore at 7.25 a.m. That is an hour and five minutes for two miles. That is the impact of the situation.

Deputy O'Mahony asked what the solutions are. Our job is to make sure that we compete as the best in the world and we make sure we have experts in the various areas. I am not a traffic expert and am not here to provide the solutions. The people who are responsible need to do that. It is not my job to tell everybody how to manage traffic because I do not know. I am here to say that this has a very real impact in terms of both industry and people's lives. We should start thinking as the best in the world in this respect as well. That is what makes industry succeed and it is what is needed to make Galway and Ireland succeed as well from an overall infrastructure point of view. There is no secret to success for industry. Certainly Medtronic has no secret to success other than that we put a huge emphasis on recruiting the best talent and then developing it. To be able to ensure our people's continued success, we need to be sure we have an infrastructure that allows them to succeed as well.

The second part of the question was whether it has hampered expansion. Again, our only secret to success is in terms of our people. If people's experience in work is diminished hugely by their transport to and from work, then that does hamper development. I do not want to speculate about numbers or whether we would be bigger without this. What I will suggest is that, overall, the secret to success is getting the right people and making sure they have an environment where they are engaged to deliver results.

Deputy Ó Cuív asked the question about where people come from. He quoted the statistic that 46% come from County Galway. I believe that figure is accurate but I do not have the numbers with me. With regard to the Parkmore estate, Medtronic is so large we are a reflection of the entire community. Our people come from everywhere, including Galway city centre, the Connemara area, east, south and north Galway, and from neighbouring counties. We are reflective of the community we come from. That is where the people come from. They come from all around. I believe 46% coming from outside the city is a reasonably accurate figure.

Deputy Rabbitte asked how long it has taken for the new slip road to start construction. I have had many jobs in the medical device industry and I have worked in my current job for just over four years. There was plenty of discussion on traffic before I took over this job and I have been actively talking about traffic for four years at least. This is the first time we have had construction work begin to alleviate the traffic. There have been many other discussions about exit lanes. In terms of specific delays, we certainly had hoped it would have commenced a year ago or certainly many months ago. It has started now and that has to be welcomed. It will improve the situation.

If one looks at the world we live in, in Medtronic, of our 3,000 people, probably fewer than a couple of hundred are working on something that existed five years ago. In 2024, which is the at-best case for the ring road being built, only a tiny fraction of what we have will still exist then. We have to change constantly. Our ability to succeed is on different timelines from this. I find it frustrating that the only thing I have thought about consistently for four years is traffic.

I am not a traffic management expert but all I can say is that if one asks people working in Parkmore, they will say the best way to get in and out of Parkmore is to go there when the Galway Races are on.

I have covered most of Deputy Naughton's questions. I do not want to talk about traffic, I would love to have been invited here to talk about some other topic. That is why I feel so passionately about it. From an industry point of view, particularly a medtech industry point of view, we have made massive advances as a country - and Galway as an area - in transforming health care around the world. We should have the same ambition for our infrastructure to allow our people to succeed.