Mr. Ian Brannigan:

I thank the Senator for his remarks. His first question on the constraints is very perceptive. We always want to do more. That is the nature of continual improvement and trying to do better. We are in a good spot in terms of venture capital and access to finance. We created a microloan specifically for the creative economy when we had good information that it was an access to finance issue for such businesses. In recent years we looked more broadly at how we could do more if the possibility arose. There are quite a lot of what we feel are patient-investor-principle projects in the region. How can I put it simply? They are projects that would provide lots of jobs and lots of income for the region but which, for the core investor, would take a long time to return the capital. We are working on ways we could be involved in supporting them. There was analysis done on the bike trails. Our region has one national and two regional bike trails. They are Donegal, Galway and Sligo. It was a very good analysis. They will build what I would describe as ski resorts for bikes, if the committee understand that analogy. They will have different trails on them. We have worked with some of the projects which are really good commercial ventures. The trail itself does not generate a lot of income but it generates bed nights because people come in and want to stay for the weekend.

If one considers what is happening in Longford with Center Parcs, it is a perfect fit. These are the types of deals we would like to see the private or public sector work on. We are looking at that type of patient investor and working with Departments and so forth to try to imagine how we could realise ambitions such as these.

A second example would be energy projects. From our work with the sector we know that many energy projects require a great deal of capital up front. Banks find that difficult because the payback period can be ten to 15 years, which is not a good business model. We believe it is a great business model because the projects use fuel such as wood chip, biomass residue and so forth from the locality. That is perfect. We are seriously looking at that and we are beginning to feel there is a solid business case there. We are in constant discussion with the Minister and the Department about how we move to realise these things.

The Senator mentioned the TEN-T. His point about an opening, perhaps, of a re-evaluation is incredibly interesting news, to be brutally honest. As I said previously, it would be nice if we could say to the various Departments, such as the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, that if there is an opening here, we would certainly like to put a case together for certain things that are in our region's interests.