Mr. Chris Hazzard:

I thank the Chair and welcome the other witnesses. Today has been really interesting. Everyone mentioned public infrastructure and the importance of the movement of goods and people. However, successive Conservative administrations in London have reduced public spending on infrastructure to the lowest rates in the G7 and one of the worst in the OECD. It is clear we will need to invest a significant amount of money to get back up to the standard, never mind move ahead.

We have talked today about rail and roads. Regarding digital infrastructure and climate and energy resilience, in south Down last month I saw Downpatrick and Newry destroyed with flooding. It is clear we need significant investment around mitigation when it comes to climate change, digital infrastructure, be it broadband and even connecting to the grid in some instances. Mr. Kelly mentioned the eye-watering greed of energy producers which is making it almost impossible. We need to take control of this. What work is being done on those issues?

Both Mr. Neill's and Mr. Robert's sectors depend on people having the ability to spend money after they have looked after their household bills. We know that times are really tough. Inflation on household costs remains very high. The economic outlook remains fairly bleak in the short to medium term. How do we transform our town centres? How do we boost our evening and weekend economy in the here and now? My friend and I usually go into Belfast city centre most Christmas times. This year we are not going to do so because of the unavailability of taxis, and the poor public infrastructure options. How do we make it so that people can move more quickly in their towns and see town centres at night time as a viable option in which to go out and enjoy themselves and to spend money in our local economies?