Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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Is it the Minister's position that there are no capacity constraints within his Department? Consider the position if we go section by section. Regarding transport, for example, the Connecting Ireland programme, which entails rolling out rural transport services and which everybody universally agrees upon and supports, is supposed to involve a five-year plan. However, at this rate it will not be implemented within ten years. With regard to offshore wind energy and renewables more generally, including onshore wind and solar energy, it is quite apparent that there are capacity constraints. There are administrative constraints in the planning system and elsewhere, but it is certainly the case there are capacity constraints. It has to fall back on the Government, including Deputy Ryan, as Minister, to ensure those roadblocks or bottlenecks are removed. Is it not the case that the Minister has not done that during the term of this Government? He has not identified those bottlenecks and responded to them quickly enough.