Mr. Paul Clancy:

Maybe I could jump in here and complement the remarks of Mr. O'Kane. We had an energy conference not so long ago in City Hotel Derry. It was very interesting to hear from manufacturers, transport organisations and waste management companies on the challenges they face. Representatives of SONI, which is the distributor of electricity in Northern Ireland, gave a presentation. The Deputy is right that there is a great opportunity to develop wind energy in the north west and in her region. If we are producing energy there, however, we should use it locally rather than lose it through transporting it somewhere else. There is a great opportunity to change the way we consider how and where we produce energy. If we have a strategic plan, we should be encouraging manufacturers to be as close as possible to where the energy is produced. We should change the whole mindset.

There is a business opportunity that we are certainly wrapping businesses around. What we are doing is starting a conversation on where the opportunities exist from a business perspective. On foot of the medical school coming to Magee, some businesses have emerged already. The medical masks operation has started. One of our members has started a new business in parallel to its own business. Once the discussion is started and people are made aware of it, people look at the region in a different way and have a different mindset. With hybrid working and the energy aspect, there can be a great joined-up approach to putting the business case together for the north-west region. Energy plays a huge part in the overall solution. It could bring new types of jobs to the region. Again, it is a matter of tapping into education to ensure we will have the right skills to be ready to embrace the technologies when they come on board and when we make the transition.