Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The first ten locations are in the process of being announced. We are up to about five or six locations and all ten will have been announced within the next week. What then has to happen is all ten need to work intensively with SOLAS, their ETB and my Department to prepare the next phase. These are multimillion euro projects and this is a scale of investment in FET we simply have not seen before. We need to be sure they can be compliant with public spending codes and we need to tease through the detail of the proposals they have submitted. I would imagine that a lot of 2023 will be taken up with that sort of work, including planning, preparation and compliance with public spending codes. The exact pace of development for each of them will depend on how much work is done on the ground locally and on how quickly that is done. I say that while being conscious - and they reminded us of this on Monday - that a lot of work has already been done on this in Castlebar. Which of the ten projects moves first and the pace at which they move will remain dependent on that level of work.

See this speech in context