Ms Nicola Byrne:

I know of one course that has emerged recently in DCU and understand one college is offering it. I know this because I went looking to see if I could send staff members to attend such a course. I was trying to recruit sales staff and looking for a course that would offer me a channel or pipeline. I went on an exploratory mission to see what I could find, but there was nothing available at degree level. Recently, a course has become available as an add-on or an adjunct. There are numerous modules, in which sales is included, but there was nothing available focused on selling. It is just one of those things in a nation like ours which relies on exporting its people, as well as services. As we all have them naturally, there may be an assumption that we do not need to learn such skills or qualify in any meaningful way. I will look up the exact details. This was the case one or two years ago and it is my recollection that there is only one degree course which is run in DCU. I could be wrong and things might have moved on subsequently, but at the time there was no sales course available. I was fascinated and a little shocked to learn that it was not a skill we associated with degrees. It is a skill that is necessary in every business. I had thought the most obvious thing in the world would have been to provide such a degree course.

Deputy Dara Calleary referred to displacement. I do not think it is displacement. What happens is that we have people who have no job and no ability to create employment. The market could sustain some fair competition. It is said the best way to set up a business is to take an existing business and do it better. That is the rule of thumb. If I was in a room full of people learning about entrepreneurship and asked whether they should invent something, I would tell them to take an existing business and do it better. The idea is to open a shop next to another or a hairdressing salon next to another because that is what constitutes market forces. Setting up a new business in a field ten miles away from the nearest business is not the solution; we need to create healthy competition. If we are to stay competitive and keep prices down, the more competition we can bring to the market, the healthier it will be.

I do not think it is unfair. However, it is unfair to build a nation in which there is no equity or humanity so as to leave people unemployed and at home without dignity or telling them that there is nothing we can do for them and that they should figure it out for themselves. We should respect the fact that we can actually share the country together, as opposed to leaving a cohort of society disadvantaged, unemployed and sitting at home. Many people would have a go at something if the risk of failure or losing the dole and so on was not as great. If that were the case, we would have completely different behaviour, but that is a personal view.

The third question was about exporters. I will allow Mr. Kelly to answer that question. I will pass on the hard questions posed.