Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the regional issue, this is an area that, I suspect, the committee will come back to. We, on this side of the table, need to put a good deal of thought into it and we are starting that process. I do not know in which quarter, but we are to produce a framework during the course of the year. It will take a bit of work on our side and I would be interested in the committee's thinking on this. It is definitely an area worth having a serious debate on - for instance examining how many visits are occurring, where is the competitive advantage in this area, what should we be targeting, how do we go after it and what would work.

I have stated on a number of occasions that the low threshold at which one hits the high rate of tax here is not jobs friendly and we should seek to change it, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and others have said so. There are push and pull factors in migration. As far back as the 1920s, there was a report on migration. I remember reading it all those years ago, although I was not around in the 1920s. There are good opportunities for certain skills here, there are people coming in from overseas and then there are Irish people with those skills deciding to go elsewhere. One wonders what is at play. One of our commitments, under the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, is that whereas two years ago 45% of the ICT skills were being met by Irish colleges we aim that by 2018 it will be 75%. We are making a significant shift in ensuring that the young people coming out of our colleges are equipped for real areas of good opportunity. That is our best response.

On competitiveness, there is a significant number of areas of improvement. This year we strengthened the National Competitive Council by adding six industrial partners, such as Ms Louise Phelan, Mr. Seán O'Driscoll, Mr. Dave Shanahan and Ms Heather Reynolds from Eishtec. We have put business people with sharp experience onto the National Competitive Council. They will be reporting quarterly to the Cabinet jobs committee on what can be done in practical terms.

Some of the competitive issues are within the reach of any of our units. One of the issues I will be looking at is to improve our interplay with enterprise. For instance, the Health and Safety Authority will be aiming to increase by 50% the number of companies which use its online tool to meet their health and safety requirements as this is much simpler and much cheaper. If, in all our agencies, we can roll out such facilities, we will improve.

There are particular competitive areas, such as the speed of planning and construction permits, in which we seem to be weak. If we can look at those areas, we will identify where in the chain it is taking too much time. Local authorities could act similarly.

The issue of energy is a tricky one. Science Foundation Ireland is undertaking a pilot research project in Ireland as a test bed to try to use the energy grid to get an advantage. We are building out an all-island energy grid. The question is whether we can turn that into a smart grid that gives us an advantage. Allied to that, generally, energy conservation or energy efficiency is an area where there is probably untapped potential and there are schemes to support that. In terms of pragmatic measures that we can take, that is probably the lowest hanging fruit with the highest return.

When one gets into the cost of energy infrastructures, the problem is our fuel mix is not particularly good. We are reliant on fossil fuels and their prices are only going one way. Even though the shale gas has changed the position in the short term, prices are only going one way in the long term.

In the short term, building out renewables is expensive. It imposes costs on consumers. There are real dilemmas in this area. The expectation is if we can get to a lower carbon energy network, we will have a long-term competitive advantage even though in the short term it might not be so easy. It is a real dilemma.

I note in the recent EU report on this that areas that we do not tend to look at, such as the transmission and various add-on costs, are ones where the greatest growth in energy costs is being driven. It is not from the fuel piece; it is from the add-ons. Better management of the grid, such as its interconnection and the capacity to use cheaper fuels, is fairly important and, obviously, is easier to control than fuel prices.

Senator Mullins is correct about communications and, maybe, we will get back to him. We will ask the Companies Registration Office, CRO, if it has a capacity to get some of that information out or make it more accessible. We are definitely keen to use every facility.

On the local enterprise offices, we have committed to 120 staff. The local authorities have committed to 50 staff. In addition, the local authorities have agreed that there will be services equivalent to those of 40 additional staff, for example, the partial service of a planning officer who would be available to advise businesses.

This is an increased resource. We have also received permission to take on some graduates to facilitate this work. We feel that, overall, these resources will beef up what is available.