Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Quite a number of issues have been raised. Deputy Ó Murchú started with housing, Uisce Éireann and the medical device sector. In the past week, I have spoken to a number of CEOs in the medical device sector as well as in the pharmaceutical sector about the challenges that are arising. The discussion was more on the medium-term and longer term impacts of the tariffs and other non-tariff initiatives that might yet be taken by the US Administration. One would hope the complexity of the supply chains and their integrated nature may force either a rethink or at least greater reflection in terms of measures that might or might not be announced.

Through IDA Ireland we are monitoring and keeping in touch with every company in terms of how things are operationally impacting on them. It is early yet to draw definitive conclusions. The medical device sector is probably in a different situation to the pharmaceutical sector. We are very conscious of this. Ireland represents a large footprint of medical devices in Europe. It is a significant sector in Ireland. In European terms we are the biggest location for medical devices. As I said earlier on Leaders' Questions, anything we do must be done in a financially sustainable way also. We are conscious of the risk to employment.

I agree with Deputy Cleere on the need to weigh investment in favour of the south east and Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford and Carlow. We will continue to do so. A lot of progress has been made. Kilkenny is a very attractive city. On tourism it has gone ahead of others because of its attractiveness. It will continue to require investment. Deputy Cleere specifically asked that access to Belview Port, east-west connectivity and the N24 be prioritised. I will certainly feed that into the process of the NDP review.

Deputy Cathal Crowe has been a constant advocate for Shannon Airport, to his credit. I remember at the time a decision had to be taken to bring Cork and Shannon airports into the regional airports because of Covid. Ordinarily they were never in that group. Now they are in it people are asking that they be kept in it. We will have to weigh that up. Both airports have grown very well in recent years. The problem with the growth of airports generally is that the airlines tend to decide. There is still the preponderance of airlines drawn like magnets into the Dublin area. What the Government is about really is raising all airports. Dublin Airport will be key for the national economy. Cork and Shannon airports will be key for the national economy and for the regions and getting real investment into them. The airport in Knock should never have been built if we were to believe economists, the then Opposition and everybody else. It has more than survived to tell the tale. It has also grown and the Government has been consistently supportive in different ways of Shannon Airport. I will come back to Deputy Crowe and I will speak to the Minister for Transport about his proposal.

Deputy Dempsey spoke about the Navan railway line. It is great news that we have got it sanctioned. Now that is old news and the next question is asking to accelerate it and expedite it. There has to be proper design. Again, we will do everything we can. It is a key piece of infrastructure. The whole issue with infrastructure is delivery and speed. People come in and raise this issue, that project or the other project. There are issues with delayed planning and all of that.

I have been to Thurles. Thurles needs the bypass. To respond to Deputy O'Meara, we will try to feed that into the NDP. It is being funded at design stage. All of this has to happen. We have to make sure it gets completed. Without it, Thurles will be a bottleneck. A lot of good things have been happening in Thurles in recent years. The education campus has been groundbreaking, I would suggest, in terms of third level students in Thurles. We need a traffic solution there, not least to facilitate Cork on our next visit with all those supporters behind us. The long queues would be a thing of the past if we had a bypass.

Deputy O'Connor raised an interesting point. Forfás did a study 15 or 20 years ago on nuclear technology and felt it would be too expensive at the time. There is now mini nuclear reactor technology. I was in Texas prior to going to Washington during St. Patrick's week. What is interesting is that everybody associates Texas with fossil fuels but it also has nuclear, wind, solar and battery storage. It is doing all five to facilitate participation in AI and what it considers to be the revolution in AI and the energy implications of all of that. I would not say "No" to what Deputy O'Connor said but there are significant expenditure considerations and work to be done on it. Solar is growing fast in Ireland. The issue, which Deputy O'Connor has raised with me, is a planning issue. This is something we need to look at collectively. People have a constitutional right to sell their land. On the other hand, it should be a function of planning as to what goes where in terms of various activities, I would have thought. We will continue to engage on this issue in terms of the growing number of farms converting to solar and the long-term implications of this.

Solar is an important source and we put our eggs in the renewable basket, particularly offshore wind. We have done very well on onshore wind over the past three decades. Ireland is a leader in European on onshore wind. The challenge is to become a leader on offshore wind as well, which I think would change the story significantly. I will come back to the Deputy about how we can best progress an examination, without prejudice, into whether it is a viable option. It is interesting that there was a lot of opposition to nuclear in the past. It turns out it was far cleaner than fossil fuels. There were never big protests about fossil fuels. We just accepted it, and now look-----

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