Mr. John Hughes:

On the first point, principally the amendment that we are proposing to the legislation is to assist in the decarbonisation of the existing client base of both IDA and Enterprise Ireland companies. In the process that will, of course, have spill-outs and spin-offs, as is often the case but it is fully aligned with the desire to increase the number of both domestic, Irish-owned and FDI companies in the green wind and green energy production space. That can be facilitated currently under the range of grants that the agencies have such as fixed assets grants, research, development and innovation, RDI, grants, training grants and so forth. It is fully aligned in relation to the existing cohort of companies and we do not see any additional legislative requirement to be enabled to support the development of sustainable green energy in Ireland. In fact, in the new IDA strategy one of the four objectives, in addition to semi-conductors, AI and digital, and health, is sustainability, which is significant. That should be reflected in year-on-year grants and Estimates to the IDA, which will obviously be debated here in committee.

In relation to the designated activity companies, the initial proposal was to partner with the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, on an initiative for premises in Limerick. That was a specific case in point where bringing a second partner on board would create a more impactful outcome and better value for money in terms of the IDA budget. What we are doing with this amendment is enabling other joint ventures to come to the fore. At the moment, the IDA can only invest itself, 100%, so this will allow it to have other partners. They could be local authorities or other State agencies, where that is relevant, particularly where the development might require significant utility investment, for example. In theory, there could be a private sector partner as well, under the legislation. The safeguard for the Exchequer is that each designated activity company's terms of reference, effectively its memorandum and articles of association, will have to be approved by the Minister for enterprise and the Minister for public expenditure. That will ensure that there continues to be oversight from the relevant Ministers on the terms of each individual designated activity company, as and when they might come to the fore. There may some more specifics that colleagues from the agency can provide, if necessary, but that would be the overarching framework under the legislation.