Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)

I thank the Minister and the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht for facilitating a meeting with Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland in recent months. We hope the rewards will be reaped and that a substantial number of jobs will be provided in the pharmaceutical centre proposed for Tralee. The Pretty Polly site is an ideal location. Pretty Polly employed up to 1,100 people at one stage and I urge all Ministers to find a suitable project, be it in education, enterprise, technology or manufacturing. This is a wonderful plant of substantial size.

What is happening with the Shannon Energy Valley initiative? There has been a lot of bureaucratic messing that has held up the project. In the region of €500 million has been invested in the liquid nitrate gas proposal which has dragged on for a number of years, with various impediments. I ask all Ministers and the Taoiseach to get involved and make an all-out effort to finalise the project because otherwise it will be lost.

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