David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To date. We have the national offshore wind delivery task force. There is so much to be done to get the other ports up to speed between planning and everything else. A lot of work went into the one in Belfast. We were told about that. A lot of infrastructure work took place to make the walls stronger to take the weight of the wind turbines, for instance. We need to move on in the development of our ports in Ireland. I do not see an awful lot happening on that. Again, it may not be directly the Minister’s area of responsibility, but it ties in with what he was talking about with the national industrial strategy for offshore wind. We do not have the ports. We do not have the infrastructure on land to facilitate gathering together the turbines and all that goes with that, or constructing the turbines and then towing them out to sea, which is another issue. Towing the turbines out to sea is a challenge because the ships that do that and look after them when they are out there are in huge demand throughout the world. I am not sure whether the Government has plans to ensure that we have that kind of technology and those ships in Ireland. They are very specialised, as the Minister knows.

At the moment, a work permits Bill is going through the House. I am not sure where it is right now or when it will come before us. I brought up a slight suggestion at the time and I will bring it to the Minister’s attention. It relates to intra-company transfers. We know that with critical skills work permits, if somebody comes to Ireland and his or her partner or spouse comes with them, that partner or spouse can work. With the intra-company transfer, that is not the case. A very small change could be made. I am told by some people in business that it is actually stopping fairly high-skilled people with a lot talent from coming to Ireland at the moment because their partner or spouse cannot work if they come here, unless they go through the ordinary route, which may not be easy. With the critical skills permit, they can but with an intra-company transfer, they cannot.

We need to move quickly on the issue of the shortage of mechanics. Some hauliers have said they may have to close because they cannot get mechanics to maintain their truck fleets. They are not eligible to be brought in at the moment. They are on the ineligible list and, therefore, the Minister might look at making a change in this regard fairly quickly.

Will he comment briefly on the issue of the Balance for Better Business initiative? I worked on this when I was at the Department of Justice. How is that going? Perhaps he can send me a note on it at some stage.