Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

-----to take on the might of Dublin and the big cities. In any event, we will work on that.

In response to Deputy Murphy, I believe that local authorities should be far more active in the pursuit of CPOs on derelict sites. There is the Derelict Sites Act. Some complain that it is not strong enough. I have never bought into that. I have always sensed that in a lot of local authorities there is a degree of inertia around pursuing implementation of the Derelict Sites Act. There should be dedicated teams actively pursuing those issues.

In response to Deputy Connolly in respect of the action points, etc., much of NESC is conditioning and moving public mood and opinion in a given direction. Some of its recommendations can be of a general nature but ultimately they find their way into governmental policy, strategy papers and White Papers in terms of signalling a change of direction in relation to specific policy areas.

On the future power system, we have had a series of meetings already with CRU and with EirGrid around what is happening between now and 2030. There is a piece of work to be bottomed out in respect of the impact of AI on our future energy needs, in particular, because it uses up an enormous amount of energy. That work is under way between the Department of climate and the Department of enterprise. The two Departments are working on that aspect of it. There is a degree of visibility now. PR6 will be coming forward. It is being submitted to CRU, which will outline the investment in the grid for the next five-to-six years, which is looking like it could be close to double the level of investment in the grid over the past six years.

Deputy Coppinger raised the issue of family reunification of workers in the healthcare sector, particularly in private nursing homes. That is an issue I will talk to the respective Ministers about. There is a human dimension to that which I acknowledge and accept. It is trying to get the balance right within society in terms of the population growth, which has been quite exponential over the past two decades, in particular, and which has had its own impact on services - housing, healthcare and services generally across society. Nonetheless, when you meet workers who are three and four years separated from their wives and children and who are in a distant land, humanity would say there needs to be a certain response. It arises not only in the healthcare area. It is in a number of other areas as well.

I could not agree more with Deputy McCormack on modern methods of construction and I would be very interested in the further education sector dealing with that issue. There is capacity in that sector and in Mount Lucas, in particular. I might talk to the Deputy about that later. Certainly, we should talk both to the Minister of State for further and higher education, Deputy Marian Harkin, and the Minister, Deputy Lawless, in respect of pursuing that agenda.

In response to Deputy Malcolm Byrne, data centres are fundamental to the economy and to the digital economy, in particular. Digital and green is where the future is. They are not mutually exclusive. It creates challenges, about which there is no question, but we cannot just say there will be no more data centres for the next seven or eight years and we will get on fine; we will not. We need a sensible debate on that in the House as well. The development in Arklow, using offshore wind as well and connecting up with an offshore provider in respect of the energy issue, was interesting.

In response to Deputy McGrath, compact growth is the key to sustainable. We both saw in the docklands development in Cork where that is very much manifest. There have been challenges trying to get the apartment blocks going but it is very contiguous to the city centre. Essentially, it is a new lung in the city centre. We can go up. Planning is facilitating height, transport connectivity, etc. There is huge potential there. The NESC report is particularly applicable to the whole idea of really getting momentum on that.

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