Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the update. The programme for Government contains a promise and an objective that the Government would explore the range of possibilities with wool. In the 21st century and in the face of climate change, it is just extraordinary that wool is classified as a waste product is just extraordinary. I am trying to get to a point where there is a thriving industry encompassing the range of possibilities wool presents. The Minister of State is far more familiar with this issue than I am, but I have made myself familiar with those possibilities, which range from insulation to medical products and cosmetics. We are wasting this product by classifying it as waste.

As for the wool council, I am on record as saying the whole thing is very woolly. This is a golden opportunity, no more than that of seaweed, for sustainable industry, particularly along the west coast. How do we get from classifying wool as waste, and farmers being paid absolutely nothing, to achieving a thriving industry? I am not sure whether the wool council, with its two interim chairs, is the right mechanism. I welcome it as a start but what are the Department, the Minister of State and the Minister doing to lead this?

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