Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. O'Rourke for that. I also want to put on his radar the issue of connectivity. There has been no investment in the N24 and N25, which are the two roads out of the region, in nearly 30 years. Again, these are strategic infrastructure pieces that I am sure Mr. O'Rourke will address at some point as part of the strategy, theme and focus of IDA Ireland.

At present, we seek €7 million from the Government to support a new investment case for Waterford Airport. I engaged with a company recently that hopes to talk to IDA Ireland about setting up some small fintech firm in the south east. As this proposal for Waterford Airport has come up, the company has suddenly decided to start looking at Waterford, which it had not done already. Again, I ask Mr. O'Rourke to please talk to the Government because it would appear that there is not much appetite, despite the small amount of money required, within Government circles and particularly within the green criteria in government, to support the development of Waterford Airport.

To widen the discussion, as I have made my pitch for Waterford, IDA site visits are absolutely important for us. We do have a small number but nothing like the other regional cities. I wish to point out there has not been a large-scale IDA investment in Waterford in over eight years. West Pharmaceuticals was the last one. We have had a couple of small ones. It is because we do not have the infrastructure. In my opinion, the infrastructural piece is missing. I understand how difficult it is for the IDA to sell a region when there is competition from other regions that are better set up.

Mr. O'Rourke has referenced sustainability, the environmental challenge and the energy portion, which are all largely interlinked. When I entered the Dáil in 2020, there was an awful lot of talk here in the first year, about the development of wind energy in Ireland. Since then there has been a lot of wind and a lot of talk but not much has happened. If we look at where wind generation is going at the moment, again there is a large project being positioned off the south-east coast, I think it is going to be problematic because of its proximity to the shore and it is all fixed bottom. The solar industry is moving on. There have been some really keen developments in solar infrastructure in the last 12 months and that is an area that can gain very quickly. We have lots of agricultural farm sheds in the country that could be converted to solar but we need grants to effect that. Both Japan and Germany are basing a lot of their future energy provision around possible hydrogen development. What are Mr. O'Rourke's thoughts about Ireland becoming a key enabler of that strategy?