Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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This is the first meeting of the Joint Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery. The combined quorum for this committee is four, including the Chairperson but there must be one member from the Dáil and one from the Seanad present to make up the quorum. We will speak in public session for a while. There will be a small amount of work we will have to do in private session involving the secretariat and then we will wrap up in public session at the end of the meeting. Apologies have been received from Senator Patricia Stephenson. The first item on the agenda is the Cathaoirleach's declaration, which is read out at all committees. In accordance with Standing Orders, I wish to make the following declaration.

I do solemnly declare that I will duly and faithfully, and to the best of my knowledge and ability, execute the office of Cathaoirleach of the Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery without fear or favour, apply the rules as laid down by the House in an impartial and fair manner, maintain order and uphold the rights and privileges of members in accordance with the Constitution and Standing Orders.

I remind members of the constitutional requirement that in order to participate in public meetings they must be physically present within the confines of the Leinster House complex. Members of the committee attending remotely must do so from within the precincts of Leinster House, not from their constituency. This is due to the constitutional requirement that in order to participate in public meetings, members must be physically present within the confines of the place where the Parliament has chosen to sit. Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of the person or entity. Therefore, if members' statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity, I will direct them to discontinue their remarks and it is imperative they comply with any such direction.

The next item on the agenda is introductory remarks by me in respect of the committee. As is implied in the title Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery, this committee is concerned with delivery. This is a forward-looking committee on the future delivery of capital projects by most Departments. We have a wide brief covering almost all State agencies and Departments.

There is a parallel between this committee and the Committee of Public Accounts. The Committee of Public Accounts looks back at previous expenditure from accounts audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General. This committee has an equally wide brief but we look forward, to projects to be delivered in the future. Essentially, our role here is to ensure national development plans and major capital projects are delivered in a reasonable timeframe and at a reasonable cost to the taxpayer. We cover all Departments, with the exception of foreign affairs, Finance and Defence. Every other Department is under the remit of this committee, as well as all the State agencies and bodies under those Departments.

The essence of this committee is about ensuring the delivery of what is proposed by the Government. To give a flavour of the types of groups we will be dealing with, we will be inviting people in from bodies such as Bord Gáis, ESB, Uisce Éireann, An Bord Pleanála and the Office of the Planning Regulator, not to second-guess the planning decisions but to look at the timetable and how long it takes and the process to get decisions out from those bodies. We are looking at delivery and we all know there can be delays on the planning side.

In addition, we will be inviting the Courts Service in because many planning cases and other aspects of major capital projects often go for judicial review. We will not be getting into the judicial aspect but we will be going through the case handling methods within the Courts Service and giving priority to major capital projects in order to avoid them being before the courts on a long-term basis.

We will also bring in National Broadband Ireland. On local authorities, some key local authorities will have a key role in infrastructure development. We will deal with that as time goes along, as well as the Office of Public Works. We will also be bringing in Transport Infrastructure Ireland, the National Transport Authority and Iarnród Éireann with regard to various rail developments.

In addition, we will be looking at the implications of EU tendering processes. How they affect the housing issue is a big issue that needs to be addressed, as are climate and environmental commitment issues.

I understand the new national development plan will be published in July. At that point, I propose we will bring in the Minister for public expenditure and reform, Deputy Chambers. Once the plan is published, that will be our first port of call.

We have already made preliminary contact with the Secretary General of the Department of public expenditure and reform to ask that he attend our next meeting in order to get the ball rolling.

Much of what we will ask the Secretary General and the people he chooses to bring with him will concern the various stages from the original concept of a project to the commissioning and people being in the building and using the facilities. We are all going to be more than shocked at the number of stages every project must go through. Perhaps some of those stages can be merged, shortened or found to be unnecessary. Equally, perhaps some stages might be more necessary in some cases and some issues may not be being considered. From our work as practising Deputies, we all know that no matter what we ask for at local level, it will be said it has gone to the relevant Department for approval for the next stage. When we check with the Department, it will say it is checking with the Department of public expenditure and awaiting sanction from it. There are many steps along the way in the system that I do not think the public knows about. We want to put this information out there for people to see. I think they will then see that we have quite a bit of a job in front of us in terms of shortening some of those steps. I am not referring to taking shortcuts but to getting greater efficiency along the programme.

I will also be asking all those organisations as part of their standard invitation to send in as part of their documentation their most recent financial statements. If we find that a company or one of these State bodies has not produced its financial statements for the last 20 months regarding what it has done in the past, how can we have great confidence in what it will do in the next 20 months? That will be a prerequisite. It is not that we will be analysing the information in detail. The annual reports of these bodies, though, should be a good report of what they are considering.

I will open the floor to the members to add some comments shortly. Just to get the ball rolling, the committee secretariat has notified the Secretary General of the Department of public expenditure and reform to attend the next meeting. Can we agree that formally at this stage? Is that agreed? Agreed. We will talk about a work programme separately, so these arrangements are just to get the first few meetings up and running. Most bodies require two weeks' notice to get ready and get information together, so I propose that at our meeting of 28 May the chief executive of Uisce Éireann would come in, who is very important. There is a break at the beginning of June. We will then invite in representatives from Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the National Transport Authority. By that time, we will have our own programme in place for what we will be doing for the rest of the year. We will just have these other meetings lined up before the formal work programme is put in place. Do the members have any comments on the direction we are going in or people who we need to bring in that I may not have mentioned? I call Deputy Cronin.

Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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Go raibh maith agat. Déanaim comhghairdeas leat on your appointment to this committee. It sounds like we are going to have a lot of work to do. Specifically, I am interested in my constituency. I hope we will be able to follow up on the extensions to the DART network. I refer to the DART+ West line out to Kilcock and an extension of the network to Celbridge as well. The rail line to Navan is another issue impacting some of my constituents. We must also ensure the electricity grid is up to speed if we are to deliver all these houses. Then there is Uisce Éireann. We have all come across estates in our constituencies where the houses are built but people are not able to get the keys because the houses are not connected to the water or electricity networks. If we are going to have representatives from the OPW in, I would be interested in following up on Castletown House. A problem is going on there. I am looking forward to my time at the committee and to working with the Cathaoirleach. I hope we will be successful as a new committee.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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I will emphasise one point. We are dealing with capital projects and not the day-to-day running of the HSE.

Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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Yes. That is right.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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We can talk about hospitals in the context of projects under construction but not the day-to-day current expenditure.

Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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We are making sure the infrastructure is there so the houses can be built.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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It is the infrastructure. I call Deputy Neville.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I congratulate the Cathaoirleach on his appointment. He is very experienced across the board and has made a great contribution in the past to the Oireachtas, the Parliament and to his own constituency. In fairness, he is perfectly positioned to use that experience in this new committee. I am very conscious that this is a new committee with a new remit and a wide scope. It is so important. The Cathaoirleach spoke about the broad spectrum of issues facing the country.

Our population has grown significantly all across the country, especially on the eastern seaboard. This has brought challenges with it. Although there has been economic prosperity, we must put the infrastructure in place. I see this in Kildare North. Deputy Cronin spoke to this issue as well. We are from the same constituency. The population in Kildare North has increased significantly. The population of the county has increased from 100,000 to 246,000 in the last 25 years. It has grown faster than anywhere else. At the same time, I have seen the impacts of this population growth. The key issues we can talk about in this context include the likes of a second bridge in Celbridge or the extension of the DART+ West to Kilcock. It is also about the playgrounds and community centres. These are also all key infrastructure items we need to ensure we can deliver. While we are obviously going to be focused on Uisce Éireann, EirGrid, the NTA and TII, I am glad the Cathaoirleach mentioned the local authorities, because they have a key role in delivering the infrastructure we require for housing.

From the national perspective, I was a financial controller in Dublin Airport as well. It is a key infrastructural element nationally. While we can use our local areas for examples, I think the examples I might use from Kildare North would be mirrored across the country. Other people will be the same. We must, therefore, look at our national infrastructure because, ultimately, this new committee, the new Department and the new national development plan will be a key focus for the Government and all politicians for the next five years. We have a real responsibility as a group in this regard. Ultimately, this Department and the delivery of this plan is a key responsibility. As I said at the start, with this growth in population we need to deliver for the people of the country. As someone who was a councillor for many years and at the forefront of these issues, I am glad to have the opportunity to be a part of this committee. I am also on the Committee of Public Accounts, which is obviously very important, but being on this infrastructure committee is key. I am delighted to have the opportunity to serve with the Chair on this committee. I thank him. I am looking forward to the years ahead and to working with all the other members.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. I call Deputy O'Hara.

Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
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I congratulate the Chair. I welcome the opportunity to sit on this committee, which has an extremely important area of responsibility. I look forward to working with all the other members as a representative from the west of Ireland and the northern and western region. It is a region ranked 219th out of 234 EU regions in terms of infrastructure. I am very conscious of the need to ensure regional balance in capital expenditure and to progress projects critical to the west of Ireland. These include the Galway ring road and the western rail corridor. I think we are all aware there are issues regarding capacity in respect of the State's housing, water and electricity infrastructure. These need to be addressed. I hope this committee can be a vehicle for progressing and, ultimately, delivering these projects across the State. I hope to play my part in that endeavour. There are also several other areas of interest, including the commitments in the rail review. I am thinking of my own area and double-tracking of rail infrastructure there specifically. There is also the issue of elective hospitals for the State's cities. I am again thinking specifically of Galway. Our regional airports are also key when it comes to regional development, and the public transport links we have to them. I am looking forward to the work of the committee.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. Deputy Clendennen is next.

John Clendennen (Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Chair and wish him well in his role. This is an extremely important committee considering the juncture we are at as a country with a strong economy, continuing population growth, ongoing foreign direct investment and our SME sector. There are many challenges, but they are certainly presenting an opportunity. We must unlock it now by engaging with all the relevant stakeholders, whether in planning, roads, rail, energy, power, water, waste or housing. They all have a part to play. A thematic sense may emerge from the national development plan as it unfolds over the course of the summer. We will need to focus on that and see how we can progress all the different initiatives that we need to. It cannot just be on a constituency level. We are all going to have our own individual priorities, but there is also a national element and an aspect of balanced regional development. We must ensure we are approaching this endeavour in a strategic way that best serves the entire country.

If you talk to the general public today, you will be told that when they hear about plans, such as a hospice in my county about which four front-page headlines have been written in the past eight weeks as to whether it will be built, their general message is to just get on and bloody build it. We must reduce those obstacles and barriers that are preventing key infrastructure and the deliverables that are required in order to make our country a better place in which to live, work, raise a family and invest. We have to, in some way, determine how we can actually measure that for our betterment.

I have talked about the consultation piece and the media commentary that occurs. With regard to projects in my county, libraries are taking almost ten years to be built. You have to really consider how it takes ten years to build a library. Projects like a link road or a primary care centre should literally just be approved and built, but they continuously bounce around the Houses. While eventually we get there, it is two, three, four or five years later. We need to make it more seamless.

Previous speakers have mentioned inviting all of the different representative bodies before the committee. To use the example of building a house, if you engage with a contractor and no one else, when things go wrong, you start calling in the plumber, the electrician and carpenter and you get all of them around the table together to ask whether the electrician is blaming the carpenter or the plumber in order to find out what is going on. A bit of that must happen in this regard. Rather than inviting them all in individually - I am not saying they are going to blame each other, but given their outlook they will say they want more funding when they are asked why they are not doing more to deliver and so forth - we must recognise that there is a collective role in this regard. With a few more seats, we can have a lot of the stakeholders coming in together to get heads around the table together rather than them coming in individually week after week. I fully appreciate and accept the Cathaoirleach’s proposals for the first couple of weeks. We need them to get up and running. As this evolves and as we see where we are going, it is going to require all of those key stakeholders to come around the table together and deliver. I look forward to working with the Cathaoirleach and all of the committee members here in delivering for the best interests of our constituencies and the country as a whole.

Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail)
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First, I congratulate the Cathaoirleach on his new position. I have worked with him before on several committees. We are lucky to have such a competent Chair who has been successful in his time with the insurance industry and a lot of entities that are not so easy to deal with. We have a strong Chair, which is important. Second, looking around the room, it is great to see so many new, fresh and energetic people sitting around me. This will be a constructive committee. The structure of committees, as we will all gather as we work together, means that we must work together as a team to achieve the best results we can for everyone around the table.

The Cathaoirleach has the ball rolling now to work on his plan of work. As he said, we will all be able to contribute in that regard in order to get the right people in who we all want to talk to and make answerable for the decisions they are making every day in whatever role they have in slowing processes. I thank the Cathaoirleach and wish him the best of luck.

Tony McCormack (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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First, I congratulate the Cathaoirleach on his appointment. I wish him well as Cathaoirleach of this committee for this term of Government. As was said earlier, this committee is an important one, especially in the context of the new national development plan which will hopefully come out in July.

Infrastructure has a huge part to play in the running of the country. Addressing the issues of the day - housing and the delivery of same, water, power generation and green infrastructure - is vitally important. I look forward to having those entities in here to question them to try to get to where we need to go with regard to having that infrastructure in place in order for us to deliver the houses that are required. Transport, roads, rail and air are hugely important areas in making sure the country runs efficiently, particularly airports and the cap on Dublin Airport.

Like everyone else here, I look forward to being involved in this committee and working with everyone on it.

Shay Brennan (Dublin Rathdown, Fianna Fail)
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I, too, congratulate the Cathaoirleach. I look forward to working with him and the rest of the committee in the next four and a half years. As much as we have a remit to ensure the delivery of the national development plan, we also have a remit to ensure value for money. I am new to committees, however, and do not know if we have the scope to actually go into individual or constituency projects. I will give one example. Maybe there will be an opportunity to talk about this specifically down the road, or maybe not. It at least illustrates what I am talking about. I represent Dublin Rathdown, encompassing the Dundrum, Sandyford and Ballinteer areas, which are served by the Luas green line. We are very fortunate to have it. When the green line was constructed, it was constructed as far as Sandyford and built to the standard of a metro, which means the tracks were built to accommodate the weight, speed, etc., of a metro. I have seen a figure that suggests that when the Dublin MetroLink, which is due to go as far as Charlemont, is being constructed, extending it from there all the way to Sandyford at that time would come in at a cost of approximately €300 million. If we do not extend it at that time and have to come back to retrofit it and join the two up again, I have seen estimates that it would cost multiples of the €300 million figure.

We are going to need that upgrade because of what is being developed on that line. There is Cherrywood with 7,000 new homes, the LDA site on the grounds of the former Central Mental Hospital which will deliver up to 1,000 homes, and the private development by Hammerson in Dundrum village which will potentially create 1,400 new homes. There will also be thousands of other houses constructed because there is a big push to build along Luas lines. We are going to have to come back to complete that project. If we do it now, we do it for €300 million. If we do it in ten years’ time, we do it for a multiple of that. We are missing something in that regard because we are clearly not getting value for money on a project that we ultimately will have to carry out. I would like to think that the committee will keep that in mind as we progress.

Cathal Byrne (Fine Gael)
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I echo the previous speakers in congratulating the Cathaoirleach. He comes with an enormous amount of experience which is to the benefit of all of us in this room, particularly because this is a new committee. I have similar views to my colleagues who spoke previously in assessing what this committee should be looking at for the next five years. While we all have individual constituency projects we want to see progressed and developed, the big thing for me is to try to get a better understanding of the key critical infrastructure projects which the country needs in order to develop and how we can take them outside of the traditional mechanisms for project delivery in order to speed them up.

I am interested in observing what is happening in the UK at the moment where a decision has been taken to designate certain things as crucial infrastructure for the country. Legislation will be advanced to designate them accordingly and thus reduce the planning permission timelines, the public consultation and some of the other barriers. Perhaps there is an opportunity, as part of this committee’s work, to look at what is happening in other countries on those key infrastructure projects which we can all agree are essential for the country. That is something I would like this committee to get its teeth into. I look forward to working with everyone.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I echo what other speakers have said in wishing the Cathaoirleach well as he takes up his role as Chair of this committee. He is very experienced and has valuable previous experience with the public accounts committee and the finance committee, but also as a Minister of State, which is invaluable. The work of this committee is important in cutting across Government policies and Departments in order to drive on and deliver the infrastructure we need.

If possible, I would like the committee to hear from the Minister for housing, particularly in respect of the strategic housing activation office, how it will work and who will staff it and, eventually, to hear from whoever will head up that office. It is important in focusing on the infrastructure needed to be able to deliver housing, particularly on brownfield sites.

I also would welcome the opportunity for the committee to look at the HSE capital plan in particular, and to get the HSE in to discuss the delivery of critical health infrastructure throughout the country. The work we do will be important in joining dots, breaking down silos and opening up lines of communication. As the previous speakers, particularly Senator Byrne, said, if one looks at the example of what they are doing in the UK, critical infrastructure is something that we, as a country, must get an awful lot better at delivering.

Eileen Flynn (Independent)
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I am privileged to be a member of the infrastructure committee. It is new for me. It gives me an opportunity, as a person who was seen as a one-trick pony, to bring my ideas here and to keep a focus on human rights and equality too. When we think of infrastructure, we rarely look at it through the lens of equality and what that means for communities and for people.

One of my focuses on this committee, along with schools and hospitals, as some of the other members have spoken about, will be playgrounds fit for purpose for disabled children. Another of my focuses will be Traveller accommodation.

I hope I can bring something new to this committee. I look forward to working with my colleagues, especially Senator Davitt. Hopefully, I can bring something new in respect of rural communities and transport, for instance. Mica-affected concrete is a big issue in Donegal and that is an issue I look forward to addressing through the committee. My experience, through the education committee and the disability matters committee previously, was always talking about concrete in that we build from concrete and it is really about those services on that basis.

We can do so much as a committee but we have to be realistic as well. While we have a responsibility around housing and houses being fit for purpose, we should also know that, as a committee, we will not be able to change the whole of Ireland as much as we want to. It is important that we, as a committee, are realistic about the work we can do.

I look forward to our work. Again, I congratulate the Chair. I look forward to working with him and to being a unique voice on this committee.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator. We have had a good run around. Everybody has had an opportunity.

There were several themes I picked up there, including what Senator Flynn said. One issue was the cost. I am putting the Department of public expenditure on notice to take this into consideration for next week. If somebody draws up a plan and it is to be built this year, the figure will be X, for example, but the people who are putting a plan forward at Government level or agency level know it could be five, seven or eight years' time or, more likely, ten years' time before the project is constructed. We want the figure provided on day one to be the estimate of final projected costs, not on the basis that it will be here within 12 months because that is unreal. I often wonder whether they put in the low cost so that nobody will object too much at the beginning, low-balling with a figure in order to get it rolling and there will be another row three years later about the second phase. That is before considering the issue of staffing when we get there. We have seen it with school building projects. There is a 1,000-student school in Portlaoise that, from the day the site was acquired to the time the school will be open, will take nearly a decade. I do not get it. That is important as well.

There is one issue we did not mention. With all of these things, one can build nothing in this day and age without considering the various environmental directives and regulations. It is a fact of life.

Those matters are being adequately dealt with.

Somebody mentioned the issue of strategic projects and whether more should go directly to An Bord Pleanála. Many projects cross a couple of county boundaries. We even see it in the private sector. With a wind farm, for example, they might have to apply to three different counties for the one wind farm, depending on the location. In its own way, that is not logical. It makes the process more bitty. It will end up in An Bord Pleanála anyway; we know that. Those are the kinds of issues we will have to consider, but today, it is only the opening remarks.

I will move on to a few other items. Regarding our work programme, we will work on that. To give a date, I suggest we try to agree the new work programme three weeks from today if, in a fortnight, members can submit the particular topics they want. In the meantime, we have agreed to bring in the Secretary General of the Department of public expenditure and reform, the senior people in Uisce Éireann for the second meeting, and Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the National Transport Authority for the third meeting. I think we will bring the last two together because the one thing we do not want is somebody here saying it is the responsibility of another body. We want the two of them, side by side. By then, we will have our work programme for the months ahead and everybody will contribute. That is really to get the process up and running at this stage.

Like all committees, we may choose to elect a Leas-Chathaoirleach who can perform duties and exercise the authority of the Cathaoirleach in my absence. Members may wish to consult each another and send in nominations to the clerk to the committee in order that we can consider this matter at a future meeting. We will allow a fortnight for that as well.

Given I am a Government representative, I suggest the Leas-Chathaoirleach come from the Opposition. That would be fair. I will leave it with the members. The members can disagree with me but I merely throw that open. The members should talk among themselves and, within a fortnight, if they want to send in a nomination to the clerk of the committee, we can discuss it then at a future meeting and elect a Vice Chair. I hope I have not upsetting anyone by saying that now.

On the correspondence arrangements, we will get some correspondence at this committee. They are considered official documents and are circulated to the committee in the same way through the MS Teams platform. In general, correspondence should be received by the committee by a certain day and by a certain time for us to consider it. As we meet on a Wednesday from now on, and this will be our regular slot, I propose the cut-off time of close of business on the Monday of the meeting week in order that it can be circulated or made available to members for the Tuesday in advance and that gives people enough time. Any correspondence on hand will be available to the committee through the Teams system. There will be a notification advising people that there is something there but we will not email every document to every person. People can read them, download them and choose to print off what they want. Is that agreed? Agreed. That is the way across the Houses.

I mentioned the work programme. We will take three weeks for people - two weeks to have the documentation in and then agree the work programme, we hope, by week three.

On other items, I have said we have agreed who to invite for the first few meetings and I have mentioned the issue of the Leas-Chathaoirleach. There is organising and conducting public meetings. I note that members are committed to joining these meetings on MS Teams only while they are in Leinster House because, as I explained earlier, the Constitution says it has to be where Parliament sits and it sits here. I propose that unless exceptional circumstances arise, such as some housekeeping issues on the agenda today, we will conduct our meetings in public. I like to do all the meeting in public, bar some internal stuff, which we will come to with the secretariat in a moment. Is it agreed? Agreed. Generally, it will be public session except where there is a good reason for not going into public session.

We also want to be conscious of the expectations of the public and we need to use our meeting time well. I request that all members provide at least 24 hours' notice, if possible, to the secretariat if they are not coming so that we know where we are in relation to a quorum.

For the purpose of committee meetings, I propose to take speakers as they indicate. I will try to be fair and balanced across the Government and Opposition.

I have seen other committees with two or three designated members - a lead speaker and a second lead speaker - and everybody knows they are not going there for the first three quarters of an hour. The earlier you come to meetings of this committee and get your hand up, the earlier you get in. I think it is fair to reward attendance at the meetings.

Regarding other routine items, press releases are usually prepared and sent to the media outlets on behalf of the committee by the Oireachtas communications unit. The press releases are informational and draw attention to what will be examined at the next meeting. They normally include a comment from the Chairperson about who is coming before the committee. It is not practical to get this approved weekly so I propose that the Cathaoirleach work with the clerk to prepare and send out regular meeting press releases. If any member wishes for this practice to be reviewed at a later date, we can raise it as we go along. Is that agreed? Agreed. That will be the standard practice. All committees will send out a press release regarding what is coming up.

We have dealt with most of our issues. I propose we go into private session to allow us to talk to the secretariat. We will then come back into public session for a minute to formally close the meeting.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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I now resume the meeting. I advise the committee that we will meet at 3.30 p.m. in committee room 1 going forward.

We will move on to any other business. Regarding our next meeting, I propose the following matters be considered: any correspondence that we will have at the committee at that stage. For public meetings, an invitation to the Secretary General of the Department of public expenditure and reform has been issued for the next meeting.

We have also agreed to invite Uisce Éireann to the meeting on 28 May. We will invite Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the National Transport Authority to come to the meeting on 11 June, by which time we will have our work programme going forward for the months ahead.

Before we conclude, do any members have any further comments? No.