Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that the Minister is giving a date for the implementation plan for the first quarter and that it will be published. The Minister set out the enterprise priorities and targets. I have read the document. I have read the White Paper although I have serious doubts about its failure to recognise that we need transformative change in how we do business. Given climate change, we have no choice. There has to be transformative change. Therefore, I am a little worried that the White Paper proceeds with the model as is. I am all for a thriving economy and a thriving Galway city but feel the transformative message has not got through. If I consider this on a parochial or specific basis, I look to the seaweed industry, or the lack thereof. I also look to the wool industry, on which a fantastic report was produced. There is something woolly about the setting up of the wool council. There is no mention of islands or of a policy for them. I am aware that this is parallel to the enterprise strategy, but it is also very much part of it.

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