Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The demand is there. This was included in the programme for Government in 2020. It is now 2024. It took up to 1 July 2022 to get the report. It took another length of time to establish a council. There was an interim chair and now there is another interim chair. We are still wondering whether there is a demand but, in the 21st century, having declared a climate and biodiversity emergency, the obvious answer is to build sustainable industries around wool, along with seaweed, to empower local people to live sustainably and also to give an alternative to our utter reliance on foreign direct investment. We have Enterprise Ireland, Údarás na Gaeltachta and IDA Ireland and there is any amount of money for small companies and start-up companies but absolutely nothing in respect of wool.

We have to move beyond the wool council. The Minister of State needs to show leadership and direct the wool council. It may be independent in the sense it has been set up independently, but that was a Government choice. The Government can give it directions as to when it will produce a report. How well is it being financed and resourced to do something four years after the programme for Government committed to it being done?

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