Mr. Ian Talbot:

The idea of aligning bus routes with SDZs is a good one, but we are so far behind by virtue of having spent so many years not building housing, for example, that we cannot do everything at once. It is difficult to recruit bus drivers even if the buses are there.

Catching up is going to be hard after so many years when we did not invest enough in infrastructure, but we have to start making decisions about the order in which we do things. We cannot get everything perfect at the moment, no matter what our aspirations are, but we desperately need the housing. Before that must come the grid, the waste, and everything else that is holding up building the housing as well. That will allow us time.

Deputy Conway-Walsh also mentioned MetroLink. Again, that is a vital project. We also need to look at other parts of the country to see what transport infrastructure we need and get it built there as well.

There are a couple of other things. We are big supporters of sustainable towns and cities. It makes sense to do this stuff right. We support that, but let us not underestimate as well the difficulty in funding projects across Europe in the private sector as well. Our support for the Capital Markets Union, a savings and investment union, and freeing up the €160 million in deposits here as well are all a very important part of putting funding into getting things done privately as well as public money being spent on it all the time.

Another issue related to the grid is the need for interconnectors internationally as well. That would complicate the ability to export. The real focus is on making sure that we have energy for our own needs first. That is what we would like to prioritise.