Mr. Tom Parlon:

I will take those questions. I am unsure as to whether we circulated the skills shortage document. We worked on it with DKM to get an idea of the potential shortages. The DKM report considered the Government's plans on housing and the capital programme, the IDA's pipeline for inward investment and refurbishment. Nothing happened in recent years, but now, regardless of whether one is in the country, there has been a large uptake of the Government-sponsored home renovation scheme. A great deal of refurbishment is under way, be it of hotels, private houses, offices or whatever. That is where the activity is.

It is predicted that we will grow by 9% year on year and that we will need approximately 120,000 jobs in the next four to five years, which is colossal. We lost 180,000 people. We are rehiring at a rate of an extra 1,000 per month. Since the situation has picked up, we have rehired approximately 48,000. A large segment of the diaspora could return to Ireland. Alongside a number of agencies, we appealed to the diaspora before Christmas. That work is ongoing. People are coming back.

Construction went out of fashion among school leavers. Members will understand that many people who were on apprenticeships were left high and dry when the industry went over the cliff and were unable to finish their terms. That left a bad taste. We are trying to lift the industry's image and encourage people back into it. I visited GMIT's construction conference in the past month. All of GMIT's courses are full. Its largest theatre - 300 plus students - was full on the day of the conference. There is interest. There are also 500 million people around Europe who potentially could come to Ireland just as our people went around the globe seeking work. Construction skills are mobile.

We are not too worried. Currently, we do not have a capacity problem. As Mr. Lucey mentioned, there is overcapacity on the civil engineering side. As soon as the Cork-Tuam motorway project that his company is involved in finishes, there will be no home for the machines, qualified drivers or engineers working on it. That is a major concern. They will not be left rusting in the west, rather they will be on a boat to England to take up the High Speed 2, HS2, project or the like. The promoters of that particular project have held a number of events in Ireland encouraging Irish contractors to consider going to England.

The threat to the social infrastructure is real. We must make our case at European level. We are not saying that the fiscal rules are the entire reason, but it is ridiculous that they do not allow investment in badly needed and productive infrastructure. The Taoiseach has been making representations in Europe and we hope that there will be some flexibility. As soon as Article 50 triggers Brexit tomorrow, Irish infrastructure and competitiveness will be under major pressure. Whatever way the ball hops, I suspect that the north west and northern parts of the country will suffer. Having infrastructural investment and good connectivity between the north west and the rest of the country will be essential.

In terms of tender prices, there is negative inflation on civil engineering projects. House prices have increased in the capital and, in many cases, that is from an extremely low base. If one takes the national figure for house prices, they are still below the cost of building or replacing a house. We do not see that big threat in a big way with the level of activity we have at the moment. Mr. Hubert Fitzpatrick showed me a report today that a number of the raw materials in use are increasing in price. That may have an impact. We are following the lines of general inflation in terms of tender prices.

On the rainy day fund, the proposal is to put €1 billion aside in 2019. Our view is we cannot afford to put €1 billion aside in 2019. We need it to invest in the housing infrastructure, the social housing infrastructure or whatever else is most needed at that particular point. I was at the launch of the European Commission's country report and a Bulgarian economist gave a shrug when he mentioned a rainy day fund. He said it was the most inappropriately named fund for Ireland that he had ever come across. We could deem to draw it down every day of the week. That is just our point. We certainly favour a rainy day fund but we think in 2019 we will still need to have a more urgent investment policy rather than to put it on the long finger.