Ms Clare McGrath:

There are a number of different headings relating to training and development. Given that the OPW is a professional organisation, one such heading is continuous professional development for accreditation to various bodies under which staff must meet set criteria in terms of numbers of hours in a year and so forth. That is ongoing and is delivered internally. We would also have a focus, in terms of our business transformation plan, on a skills analysis or audit. We are looking to our future state and are asking what competences we will need and what our current capabilities are. We fit our training to the skills we need in particular jobs. We are minded that we will be moving people who have competencies in certain areas to other areas where the focus is changing in terms of strategic planning, portfolio planning and so forth. Where we need the people who have certain skills now to change direction, we are providing training and upskilling. Divisions and functional areas throughout the organisation are looking at the competencies they need to fulfil their roles and determining whether there are any skills gaps. We then focus the training on those identified areas.

The answer to the Deputy's second question is "Yes". There is not much movement in terms of locations because our main locations have already been determined and we have a regional structure. Our headquarters are in Trim. We move people within the functional areas and people also make choices or decisions and seek to move to different areas. It is more of an issue in the context of the estate portfolio and the work being done at the moment as to the current position with staff resources. I am not hung up on the location but am more concerned about whether we have the skills and competencies within the organisation to do our work. Staff can work in a number of different places and in the future, potentially, staff will go to the nearest location to their home, irrespective of what department they are in. That is the potential for the future. In that sense, staff could be in any location. We have not been engaged in wholesale movement or closing of offices within the organisation. In the future, however, we will have to increase our capacity to deliver on the capital programme in the area of flood relief. We commission extensively for a lot of the work. The private sector provides the inputs for projects and we oversee the work and act as the intelligent client. We will be increasing our capacity to allow us to deliver on the flood relief capital programme in 2018 and beyond. That is an area that we will have to consider carefully.