Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)

I thank the witnesses for their presentations which provided a good outline of what they believe is causing the delays. I hope their staff are listening to how great they are and that they will notice it in their Christmas bonus. The exemption that was given around critical infrastructure and data centres by the British Government was done in the context of the national security of their own data centres rather than private data centres. I say that just in case we think we are in competition and we start building even more data centres to the detriment of delivering on housing, hospitals, bridges and all of that kind of infrastructure.

The opening statement refers to environmental considerations being addressed by "mitigating against environmental impact rather than no harm criteria, which is almost impossible and therefore very difficult to get over". Will the witnesses explain the difference between mitigating against environmental impact and no harm criteria? I do not want us to go down a slippery slope. I attended a meeting of the climate committee earlier today. I do not know if the Healy-Raes are diversifying from tar but they were dead keen on cutting down every tree in the country, which would be like throwing the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to climate action. Will the witnesses to explain what they mean by that statement?