Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will make four brief points. First, in regard to infrastructure, there is competition among those who are looking to develop wind in other countries, so we need to move quickly or we will not have access to those developers. Second, four Departments are involved in this, namely, those relating to the environment, transport, the marine, to an extent, and planning. I have a concern about that and raised it at a recent meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts. Third, we do not have the ports infrastructure, which needs rapidly to develop. Fourth, we need to have ancillary developments. For the millionth time, I promote the Silvermines hydroelectric plant, which the Government should support and which has been in gestation for eight years.

As far as I am concerned, we will be absolutely at a loss if we do not quickly develop Foynes as one of the key resorts here. The infrastructure that is required in what is the second-deepest water port in Europe is way behind. We should have been doing it years ago and we need to start now.

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