Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Neville. He is quite right to point out those key areas. As a Government, we are very committed to unblocking so many of the challenges to infrastructure delivery. The Deputy will see the decisions made by Cabinet in that regard. Commencing the planning Act will be key and central to delivering that pipeline. There are huge opportunities here, as I mentioned, through the Draghi report and the European Commission's competitive compass. For many companies, regulation is a problem. We are bringing through the response to the Omnibus Proposal and the corporate sustainability reporting directive, CSRD, which will take about 80% of smaller companies outside of the scope. That is important in terms of a regulatory response that we have proportionate regulation for many of our SMEs. The small business unit will yield significant results as well.

The Deputy is quite right about energy. We have to face up to the fact that in the next decade we will need more investment in our grid than we have since its creation. This will be very significant in the context of the review of the national development plan. AI and generative AI requires about 2% of worldwide energy production. It is a huge energy user. As an economy, Ireland has to ensure that it has the infrastructure to support and underwrite the level of employment and the high-quality jobs in the economy that the Deputy is quite rightly fighting for.

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