Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have a concern still on top-down rather than bottom-up if it has taken this long for a Government to commission feasibility studies on wool. There has, therefore, been too much consensus on the way forward as opposed to looking at our assets and how we use them. Anyone with a bit of sense would realise that wool has great value, from insulation to remediation for bogs, just to mention two of its uses. We had public meetings on seaweed but we still do not have a policy on it.

These are two indigenous industries but there are many more. I do not see an emphasis on sustainable, indigenous industries in the west of Ireland, bearing in mind that the last regional assembly report said the north and the west suffered disproportionately from Covid-19 as opposed to anywhere else. I am concerned. It is difficult to put in submissions, to keep an eye on county and city development plans and to speak in the Dáil. Surely there must be enough people within Government to say that seaweed is the growth area with the maximum potential for lives in the west of Ireland.

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