Mr. Martin Shanahan:

I thank the Senator for her comments. I will take them in the order she outlined them. Her positioning is right in that large businesses typically have the wherewithal and the motivation to engage on green issues and decarbonisation. Many of them have to do so, frankly, because their clients demand it, whether that is the end user or another business they are selling to.

A large proportion of the client companies with which we engage have very well developed and sophisticated plans at a corporate level. Increasingly, we see that at the Irish level. Part of our role is to help those client companies to engage in climate action and support the Government's endeavours. The Senator is right. For many of them, when they are procuring goods and services, they are seeking to ensure they come from green sources and are not adding to their carbon footprint.

We support smaller companies within the IDA Ireland portfolio and help them develop their climate action plans. I am aware that our sister agency, Enterprise Ireland, which is responsible for indigenous companies, also does this. Perhaps there is something for us to do together. We are happy to look into that to see if there is something that connects the dots between those two. We have learned a lot from our colleagues in Enterprise Ireland regarding this area and some of the supports it had in place. This is why I am confident it has them.

Regarding data centres and co-locating with green energy sources, I agree with the Senator that this makes sense. Many data centre operators in Ireland are seeking green energy and, in some cases, have secured options or provided the development funding to build wind energy farms and secure the output from those. This increases the renewable energy supply in general and specifically for those companies. Other companies are heavily engaged in this area. Members may have seen Eli Lilly in Cork launching its solar farm, which is a very significant investment. All of these large users are trying very hard to ensure that they are secure green energy. That is what is demanded of them in corporate; therefore, it is what is demanded of them in Ireland.

We are very familiar with Clare and the opportunity relating to offshore wind, to which I alluded earlier. Again, data centres are a consistent demand there should we be able to develop that offshore wind. We will definitely take the Senator's comments on board regarding Clare and west Clare.