Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

I appreciate the commitment by the Government to tackle the planning issues, but we did not have that problem in Athenry, fortunately. It was an eight-week planning process and permission was granted with the necessary conditions to ensure nobody was impacted negatively. It was a positive news story and something we as a Government should promote more to the wider world to show that companies can do business in Ireland, can do it quickly and can grow their business in a safe and reliable environment.

The other point I wanted to make applies in particular to small-to-medium-sized enterprises across the west. Procurement can be quite difficult. I continually raise this, but we need to change the way we are doing procurement to ensure our small-to-medium-sized enterprises can access opportunities close to home. It should not be a case of the large players continually being the ones to get the largest slice of the cake. It should be the case that our small-to-medium-sized enterprises in our localities have access to opportunities as well.

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