Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Will the Deputy let me finish? IBM creates significant employment in Waterford. To see it continue to prosper and grow is significant. There is the new technological university, of which I am sure Deputy Shanahan is aware. It provides huge employment and services for the upskilling required throughout the country. In the region of €170 million was put in through the urban regeneration and development fund, which will have a transformational effect on the quays in Waterford. It will be a significant project. At approximately €290 million, the budget for the hospital is up 44% from the commencement of this Government's term of office. There is €69 million in capital expenditure, and a range of flood protection measures were taken in the city. Approximately €30 million was invested in schemes relating to active travel. There is a new courthouse and a new primary care centre. A massive amount of work and investment have gone in, which is realised on the ground by a strong labour market. We have full employment. I have no doubt Waterford feels that too. That is demonstrated by the evidence I am providing to the committee.

On the issues relating to a living wage, we are in an independent process with the Low Pay Commission, which is currently adjudicating on its work. We await a recommendation from the Low Pay Commission on about 16 July. The Government will consider that recommendation in due course. We are all aware of the circumstances and accumulated costs businesses are enduring. The Department of Social Protection and my Department compiled a report. It is available to everyone. We must not lose sight of the improvements that continue to be made in conditions for workers and that improve productivity and morale. We should not assess this as a zero-sum game. What is good for the business can be good for the worker and vice versa. It is important that we continue to work with businesses and try to support them in reducing costs. We did that through the increased cost of business grant and the 15 interventions in our SME package.

There have been significant improvements in the insurance sector. The Government received a report recently on the implementation of actions, which are substantially complete. New competition came into the marketplace recently with the arrival of a South African company. Subsequent to a Supreme Court case, mediation is now taking place. I hope we will see, in the statistics that are to come out, the improvements due to the actions taken in the insurance reform plan we brought to the Government. During the week, there was significant concern about legal fees and the proportion of cases involved. We will have to see how the statistics for the period after the Supreme Court case wash out. I hope we will see significant improvement. We also need more competition to come into the marketplace.

Biomethane is another significant strategy the Government has brought forward. We will work with the Minister for agriculture. It is important for the green transition, as well as trying to align how to get public infrastructural projects like it up and running, reforming the EPA licensing process and ensuring the planning code delivers projects like this of scale in a better fashion than it already is. That is why we have the Planning and Development Bill, which is currently going through the Oireachtas.

The US election process is ongoing. Ireland has a strong diplomatic corps in the US. We have about nine missions across the US, and a number of new consulates are operating well and building on the strong ties and relationships we have on Capitol Hill. No matter the Administration, Ireland will continue to invest in our bilateral relationship and bring forward our concerns. The importance of a healthy bilateral relationship is that your friends can talk to you and explain where they believe you are going wrong in terms of policy. We saw that during the engagement in the White House this year and Ministers who went to different cities across the US.