Mr. John McCarthy:

I thank the Deputy for his question. The conference is not about transport per se. It also has big elements about energy and communications for the purposes of transport. We will not be looking at transport in isolation but will be considering the impact it has and its benefits. For us, the conference is designed to provide a forum for debate on all the issues the Deputy has highlighted. We hope to allow for that type of learning to occur from experiences elsewhere and the experiences we have had here. We hope to allow for those experiences to be shared, for the exchange of ideas and for the creation of a network, from a technical level, including technical papers, to the plenary level. We hope to create that type of interaction. To try to do so successfully is a big aim and if we manage to do it, we will see it as a big success of the conference. It will be central to the objective of the conference.

The themes of the conference are somewhat generic but any of those themes could be seen as going to the issues the Deputy has raised. The idea is that the conference will allow for debate to occur throughout the four days. The Deputy or a delegate who is interested in the areas the Deputy has outlined will be able to pick up on those topics as they work their way through the conference. It is designed to be beneficial for everybody, no matter what perspective they are coming from.