Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their time, particularly Mr. Shanahan, who is getting a fair grilling. It is a good job he has resilience. It is interesting. I read the entire 18 pages for my sins.

As Green Party spokesperson for enterprise, trade and employment and for rural development, I will focus on supply chain issues. Larger companies in the private sector are doing really well at reducing their energy and carbon emissions and struggling to find smaller businesses that have done the same because they feed into their carbon footprint. It has been highlighted to me and I would like to hear if Mr. Shanahan has looked at that. How does he support the supply chain also being green? Bigger companies can afford to hire an expert. I have worked with SAP and other companies through a social enterprise I had about greening business, so I have experience in this. Some of them have done amazing work but small businesses do not really have the time or money.

I got a commitment from the Tánaiste of €22 million for helping the small-to-medium enterprise sector decarbonise but I spoke to him on the fact the supply chain was struggling and bigger companies were struggling to find small Irish businesses that could give them carbon figures. I would like to hear about that, if the IDA has any information, or we could talk about it again.

I see the IDA's five pillars and 60 sustainability investments. I would like to hear what exactly that means.

It is time to differentiate between greenwashing and really green businesses. We have seen both. We have seen greenwashing for years and now it is becoming trendy so there is a lot more of it. There is also a lot of genuine greening in industry. It is not just the environmental NGOs that are green. I see deep work and concerns in the private sector in big business. They are not all baddies, as people like to think. As Larry Fink said, "Climate risk is investment risk." It is no longer a little green thing. It is serious business now, economically as well as climate-wise. It should be a central pillar for all business at this stage. I would like to hear more about that from the IDA.

My final point is a local thing and brings up Deputy Paul Murphy's favourite hobby of talking about data centres and how evil they are. Data centres are needed because, as Mr. Shanahan pointed out, we would not be able to have this meeting without them. They help us. It is suggested best practice to have them near green energy sources. Considering the offshore wind coming into County Clare, I wondered if the IDA had engaged with the ESB or whoever is on the east coast dealing with offshore wind on the probability that that is the best location for a data centre. We need them and they can be beneficial in storing energy. I will not go into that as we have had enough about data centres today. The IDA should be looking at data centres and businesses coming to west Clare as part of just transition and with a view to having access to clean, green energy on their doorstep and hydrogen, long term, as well.

Given that Moneypoint is closing down, we need to show west Clare that we have not forgotten it. West Clare should become a hub for businesses because of the offshore wind and there should be a huge focus by the IDA on bringing businesses who want green, care about their carbon footprint and will happily locate to that place. Kilrush and Kilkee are fabulous places with all the amenities people need and will have green offshore wind as well. Is the IDA focusing on that geographic area? I see in the map where it has focused and it is mainly cities and big towns but now we have to focus on putting them near good sustainable energy.