Ms Patricia King:

I did not have any direct dealings with Athlone Institute of Technology but I did have a direct conversation with key people in NUI Galway, where there are projects relating to wind and solar energy, for instance. NUI Galway could be used as a centre in the west.

I think Galway could be utilised on the west of Ireland in terms of becoming a centre and has much more opportunity to invest and to attract investment and so on. I did have a conversation in relation to that. I did have that conversation as well with the director of the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, where I identified with him that the IT in Athlone should be approached in providing that. Again, on the whole issue about the availability of public transport, as the committee will know, we spoke at that conference about availability of public transport and all of that. That is all part of the holistic piece as to how that should be increased and how all of that should be done in a green way. There is a very good story that could develop out of this, if we could get the players into the right place to talk about it.