Tim Lombard (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Department for its presentation. It has been informative this afternoon.

My colleague, Senator Joe O'Reilly, made a comment about rural Ireland. The Senator was rebuking the view of another colleague of my mine regarding a view on the sparse population. It brought into question why we are doing all of this. The Secretary General made a statement on what this means to rural Ireland in areas such as smart farming and smart education. E-health was mentioned, as was the opportunity to work from home and our digital companies, whether in Cork or elsewhere. Were all those matters taken into consideration by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in its analysis of the project? I refer to all those key issues for society in the future such as smart farming, carbon footprints and climate change.