Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I cannot give the Deputy a precise amount for this particular programme, but I will get it for him. He can rest assured that he would be very impressed by these well-organised events. The feedback we have received, especially from the foreign direct investment companies, shows that they are delighted to do business in this way. I would like to mention another thing that came through to me when I saw smaller Enterprise Ireland companies providing industry, intellectual property or data to foreign direct investment companies. It seems to me that regardless of whether those in charge of the Irish divisions of the foreign direct investment companies are Irish or from outside the country, they put on the green jersey and make sure the overseas parts of their companies hear about the good supply chain performance they are getting from indigenous Enterprise Ireland-supported companies here. As a result of that, many smaller Irish companies are getting to trade abroad. We are trying to ensure that we facilitate as much of tis activity as possible in the interests of helping our indigenous companies to develop.

Deputy Donnelly also asked about the fall-off in jobs, or the "jobs churn" as it is called. This is a normal part of every economy. There is no overarching structural issue in our economy driving job losses at this point. In the past, we had issues with the construction sector and some other sectors, but now all sectors are growing. Of course, some are growing faster than others. Last year, the two agencies actually had their lowest level of jobs churn in recent years. However, the agencies are moving away from some of the older sectors to high-tech sectors. For example, they are moving away from pharmaceuticals to biopharmaceuticals. The pharmaceutical sector is presenting a kind of problem here. They are also moving jobs from ICT. The biopharmaceutical sector is huge in this country. The data sector is also massively important.

I would like to go off track for a moment. The Deputy spoke about infrastructure shortages. There is actually a skills shortage as well. If any mothers are listening to me, can I ask them to encourage their children towards subjects such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics? There is a massive shortage in ICT and in engineering. Those who will be filling out CAO forms before the end of June might take that on board.