Mr. Andrew Murphy:

I will comment more broadly on the issue of economic sustainability and, in particular, what we are doing to our rural communities in response to the point made by Senator Dooley. We have discussed our current model. We can sum it up by pointing out that we import most of our energy from abroad for our transport system and we concentrate most of our employment in big cities. If we do things right in transforming our transport system, we will be able to upend that in two ways. First, we can move a lot more manufacturing, even for batteries, to Ireland. Science Foundation Ireland is sponsoring some exciting work via Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research, AMBER. Battery factories are opening up in other parts of Europe that previously lost employment. We should be targeting that in Ireland. Second, we will have an abundant amount of renewable electricity in Ireland. From 2030 onwards, the SEAI suggests that we will have more than enough for what we need in Ireland. It is not inconceivable that from the 2030s onwards we can produce zero-emission jet and shipping fuels in Ireland. That can take place in areas around the Shannon which have had low employment in recent years. This is what we should be looking for when we talk about transforming our economy and transport system, and doing both together. This can be a powerful driver of employment across Ireland. In our next economic recovery, we should always prioritise a model which disperses employment across Ireland as much as possible.