Shay Brennan backs Sandiford push to become major digital hub

Gourmet Goethe, Cian Córle. Taoiseach, internationally recognised digital hubs like Stassion F in Paris have profoundly transformed their local and regional economies by attracting start-ups, venture capital and cutting-edge innovation ecosystems. The Government has signalled strong backing for digital hubs as cornerstones of Ireland's economic competitiveness and future growth. In Sandiford Business District, it is now at an advanced stage of planning its own large-scale digital innovation campus, uniquely suited due to its strategic location, quality infrastructure and well-established international business community. With proactive Government support, Sandiford could emerge as a flagship hub of digital entrepreneurship and innovation on the European stage. How can local stakeholders best engage with and bring this opportunity to the Government's immediate attention to ensure it receives the coordinated backing necessary for success? Thank you Deputy President. Thank you to all the deputies who have contributed and to Deputy Malcolm Byrne, I think he was first out of the traps, so to speak, in terms of the 11 per cent is quite low in terms of the implementation of the Draghi report and certainly Ireland is already identifying the single market and some of the reforms in Draghi and Leta in terms of our own Presidency of the European Union in the latter half of next year. We certainly would like to see an acceleration of the recommendations of the Draghi report because they are essential for European Union competitiveness because Draghi pointed out that barriers that currently exist are way and above much more costlier than any tariff from the US, by three times in some cases. And the digital strategy is imminent, the publication of that and an updated AI strategy also. Deputy Shane Moynihan in team lat, goil Coursi Traadala, Reaacachtaugh ohef Coursi Gallagher na Tira. And in terms of the metrics in and around the employees, I fully agree that we need to scale up, first of all, Indigenous companies. And if you look strategically at the country into the future, there is an inextricable link between multinational investment and our own SMEs, Indigenous enterprises. So a lot of them are part of the supply chain, a lot of them have grown in expertise because of their relationship with multinationals. But there has been an issue with scaling in terms of growing our own multinationals in areas like life sciences or indeed in technology. If you look at it, the one area we have grown multinationals is in the food and agriculture based industries, the glambias and the career groups and so on like that. And there is certainly an issue there. And certainly on employee share options and so on. There is a leadership for growth programme that Enterprise Ireland manage for companies. Some previous times I went to Harvard. I met 35 companies in New York recently when I was at the UN. We did a bit of work with our own companies and 35 were availing of the leadership for growth programme. These are SMEs. And I've met many people who have been on that programme over the years and they would all say that it really had a beneficial impact in mindset terms, in terms of their ambitions as CEOs and in terms of how they were organising their companies up to that point. So mentorship is extremely important. And we do work with many companies in the US and the larger Irish companies who do help us to mentor emerging Irish companies. But the future strategically has to be to really increase the scaling up of Irish companies for long term competitiveness. And Deputy Brennan is kind of on a similar mission, but with a specific application to Sandiford. But I actually met the owner of Station F recently, quite an innovative radical person, one of the first people I've met in Europe who you can say is a real business leader. As a leader, we generally interact with US behemoths, you know, in terms of the Googles and the digital joints, Amazon and so on like that. But here was a French person, European, who had a clear vision in terms of the enterprise side and the digital side in particular, incubation and so on like that. What I would say in terms of how do you progress and how do Sandiford, I think engaging with enterprise Ireland is critical in terms of the whole area of incubation and supports around that in that particular unit. I think linking up with third level is important because that can give added heft and it could mean you could draw on talent and ability and brains in the campus to link it to the business campus. So I would recommend those two options and certainly if I can be of any help in talking to enterprise Ireland and indeed going out to see it myself. Because I think that is the future, creating hubs like that to enable entrepreneurship to flourish. We can do more as well, if I'm honest, in terms of budgetary policy and fiscal policy. But we can only do so much on any one budget. But very often when you do things for entrepreneurship, it gets attacked politically as being kind of looking after the businesses as well. Whereas actually what you are trying to do is enable an environment that can create jobs into the future and good high quality jobs as well. And I think who is the Deputy of the National AI Office, Deputy of Carule. That is an excellent suggestion. I will talk to the Minister and respect to the Minister. It is good news. We have made rapid progress on the proposals and many of you recommended the creation and establishment of a National AI Office. It is only some months ago. It was eared here at leaders' questions. We have moved now to progressing that and putting up on a statutory basis. I think the AI issue is huge. I think we have a lot of catching up to do in Europe and in Ireland in respect of AI. And then we have the relationship with energy use and AI which is going to be very challenging. Which means we definitely need offshore wind from 2030 onwards to enable us to avail of the AI revolution. And okay, people will question it. Some are saying no, it could be like the .com and all of that. But it is here to stay in long term. And we do need to make sure that we can get our heads around it and make sure we are part of that agenda into the future. But the general view worldwide is that Europe is way behind the United States and China in respect of this. Deputy Mayor McCormack in terms of, yes, often in the Midlands in general, because of its previous history, is well positioned to become an energy hub in itself. Using board Lamona. I pay tribute to board Lamona. I think as a state company it has transformed very effectively from being a fossil fuel based company with many climate issues, to transforming that around to the almost opposite agenda very, very quickly. And it is a very good example of a state company aligning itself with state policy very quickly. Not resisting it, but going with it. And I have been down there quite a lot now with other third party companies, not with the companies, but with board Lamona, who have enlisted third party companies who are investing in energy projects in the Midlands. And the transition program and funding we have received from Europe, and indeed the national transition funding, should help to underpin the continuation of the Midlands and Offaly as an energy hub into the future. Deputy Coppinger, in terms of the not-for-profit, someone has to pay in the end, you know? You just can't magic the grid or investment in the grid. So, I mean, there's an onus on you to identify the massive state investment that would be required, in addition to what we're investing already, to get to a not-for-profit electricity or energy system in Ireland. And you referenced the 1970s and the 1980s. Like I was a student in the early 80s. The 80s was not a good decade economically. Not a good decade. I wouldn't be sentimentally, I wouldn't be sentimentally returning to the 80s as a model for the future. Just wouldn't do that. And I think the population was much lower. I mean, there's been dramatic changes in our society in terms of population growth, in terms of economic growth, in terms of the challenge of climate, all of that. So it's not as simple as presented. And I think we can't keep doing one-off budgets forever, like, or one-off packages. That seems to be the suggestion from the opposition, that we should have a one-off package this year, a one-off package next year. We just can't continue to do that. Deputy O'Rourke, that's an important issue. And the qualifications issue pertains to some of the regulatory bodies in specific areas. So it's the medical council, it's the teaching council, which they may not like me saying this, but I think they can be quite conservative. And some of the other bodies, Kourou, I've been in touch with the Minister for Health, they're moving on Kourou in terms of, you know, moving, they said they're moving on therapists, for example. It's interesting that it has taken too long to register people who have clearly well-qualified and internationally good qualifications in sort of speech and language or in physio or in occupational therapy. And it could be a year, year and a half before they get recognised here. And we must be much more nimble. And then you have the driving stuff, driving licence and all that. So I think there was a very legitimate issue in terms of people returning to live in Ireland from overseas. So we've reduced the barriers to them reintegrating into our society and facilitating that. Deputy Paul Murphy on terms of education. You mentioned a specific area I talked about. If it's four pupils short, you know you can make the developing school status appeal, or you can appeal on the basis of developing school status to retain a teacher. That system is there for a long, long time in terms of retaining teachers. But over the last number of years we have significantly reduced the pupil-teacher ratio. And sometimes, I'm not saying in this case, but sometimes it depends on how a principal or the management of a school will deploy teachers. And they may have other priorities and they may do it in a different way. So that does happen also. But in this case you're saying it's down a teacher and due to lose again next year. I don't know, is that because of population demographics in the area or not? But, you know, we're investing a lot in education over the last number of years, and we'll continue to do that. I think Deputy Kerry, in terms of the exit tax rates, in terms of the funds and so on, I think the Finance Bill might be an opportunity for you to press that case with Minister Donoghue. That allows for more detailed examination of issues of this kind. But I do accept the basic principle that, you know, sustainable investment and sort of good practice is what we should be encouraging and facilitating. And Deputy Walsh, Rose Connery-Walsh, again, the renewable energy is the key. Deputy Walsh has gone, I'm kind of alarmed that there was terrible protest about we having leaders' questions only once a week and so on, but the leaders of all the parties here are not here at all. And there we go. Deputy Walsh has left after asking the question. She'll be back, I think, to be fair. Okay. Sorry, Deputy Walsh, I was just saying that the renewable energy is the key and the green transition is the key. And I accept your point there. And one of the issues we have is the over-reliance on fossil fuel importation on a number of fronts. Energy security being the key one. By the way, everybody here is complaining about the decision to have an LNG facility. Like, it would be utterly irresponsible if we don't develop that. My concern is the timeline to develop it. Because we have no backup if anything is to happen, the interconnectors. And that is a big security vulnerability. Thank you, T-shirt.