Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I will come back in on one thing. It seems that some of the big opportunities include river catchments, forestry, peat wetlands and I am sure there are others. Those are off the top of my head. How do they stack up at the moment as regards getting into the sort of framework that will see fast track of investment for them? It seems from what we have heard that there is a great deal of uncertainty around pinning down the exact costs and benefits on an individual project. As a generic type, the State would undoubtedly benefit massively from a huge step up in investment in these areas. It seems we are caught in a slow bicycle race in that we all recognise these things need to be done but we are still saying we do not quite have the tools to drive them along. How do we make the leap? Does it require a political leap of faith that says those models are great, but really we have to decide we will take a political leap and take a chance recognising that some mistakes will be made? How does the Department see it? Those areas seem to be the areas in which we have failed to make the changes we need to make. There is an opportunity there.