Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I visited Galway to make the announcement on 28 November 2022. I appreciate the point that the overall fund was announced. I did not realise it was a year ago today, but there you go. It was 28 November when Galway was officially selected as one of the ten. We have now identified these ten projects. There will be more in the country, but these are the ten we want to proceed in phase 1. We do not give out the specific figure now. That is not to be difficult, but it is subject to tendering and the likes. The question of which project will move first or second of the ten will depend on a number of factors, including planning and the preparedness of the ETB. The factual position at the moment is that now that the ten have been announced - that process took us up to Christmas - in the coming weeks SOLAS will meet with each of the ETBs with the template documents and guidance material for the preliminary business case. On whether it has started, they are all very much aware of it, but the starting will formally be in the coming weeks when the guidance documents and template documents will be given out. I will revert to the Deputy on a closing date because I truthfully do not have one. The key point is that we want to make sure we get people over the line, so we have done a lot of work in making sure ETBs have very clear supporting material and templates on what needs to go into the business case.

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