Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will certainly feed that back to my colleague, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, and to the Cabinet committee on Ukraine and the major humanitarian crisis. I visited the Columb Barracks site. We were accompanied on the visit by a local historian who took us around the site, the history of which is fascinating. It is a massive site. Far be it from me to say, but I think the right approach is to try to have a mixed-use development where we can put what was a thriving beating heart of the community back into use in a modern way. Part of that would be for housing, part for education and part of it for the green revolution we need to see in terms of skills. I am very pleased that Longford-Westmeath ETB has put up its hands and offered to be leaders in this area. I am very grateful to SOLAS for taking such an active role. If we are serious about climate change and action, which we are, this EV piece is huge and the centre of excellence in Mullingar can be a hub for the entire country. I look forward to its development.

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