Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I thank the Deputy who is quite right; it is an area of huge opportunity. As a country, in the past we have not done enough in this area and having only one project speaks volumes. That is why we are reframing the narrative in connection with this and working with Enterprise Ireland and the IDA to try to ensure companies have the capacity to access these very significant projects. We know renewables and semiconductors are going to be important for the future of Ireland. As I said in my earlier contribution, when you see chips turning up in fridges, phones, electric vehicles, Ireland has one of the best landscapes for this. More than 80 semiconductor companies are linked in with SMEs in our landscape, with more than 20,000 people, and KPMG has been clear we have the capacity to go to 40,000 in the next decade and beyond. When we see we are dwindling in Europe - we have only 8% of the chip market while Asia is manufacturing 80% - we have the building blocks here and products like this to drill down, as the Deputy quite rightly pointed out, other components in our SME supply chain. I would push this as part of the NDP review because this is how you sustain really good employment and enhance our SME sector right across the economy.

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