John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for the presentation and the documents. I have just a couple of questions. The first is a comment on the comments made by the witnesses on USC. Based on their comments the witnesses appear to favour a minor reduction in USC over its complete abolition but they do not seem to take account of the fact that everyone pays USC and so a reduction in USC benefits everyone, not just those who are on lower or middle incomes. It benefits the higher income earners as well.

A number of groups who have appeared before the committee have talked about "the lost decade". I come from a political perspective so the witnesses would probably not expect anything different from me, but the assertion needs to be challenged because when I think of my constituency, which is a Dublin constituency - Dublin South-West - and the projects within that decade, for example, in 2010, 2011 and 2012, significant infrastructural projects were delivered. The State honoured contracts for the second terminal at Dublin Airport and the National Convention Centre. In my constituency there was an extension to the Luas red line. A number of schools were built. The biggest primary school in the country was built and completed in 2013. The State honoured many contracts. The term "lost decade" is used as a throwaway comment and it just serves the purpose of being overly negative. I accept that things were bad enough but there were motorway completions and some of the infrastructural projects which I have mentioned, and they are playing a critical part. Some elements of the media called the second terminal in Dublin Airport a white elephant when it opened, and look at it now. If we did not have it now we would be in trouble in terms of the capacity it provides. However, they are political points.

I found the presentation really interesting because it was crisp and sharp and not overly wordy. An issue I had been harping on previously in local government for the past three years was apprenticeships. We have 225,000 people in third level education in this country at undergraduate and postgraduate level and we have 11,500 on apprenticeship programmes. I think a new conversation is needed. IBEC can play a part. In the UK they set up a commission - we have a similar commission here - and they set as their objective that they would get apprenticeship programmes to the point where every parent might consider an apprenticeship for his or her child. We are way off that target here. Leaving certificate results came out a month ago and the following week the media and the newspapers were absorbed with the Central Applications Office, CAO, and with points and virtually no time was given to apprenticeships. I would like the witnesses to comment briefly on the matter because it is a theme to which we will return in terms of what business can offer in that regard, what IBEC would like the Government to offer and where the space is needed. The situation is connected directly with the 6% unemployment rate and there are not an awful lot of skills left in there. Will the witnesses comment on the kind of programmes we can develop, what skills we are short of and how we can make the gaps up reasonably quickly?

I am particularly interested in broadband as well. Will the witnesses provide a little more detail on where we are from a business perspective in relation to broadband? I represent a Dublin constituency, but like the Chair, there is quite a bit of rural in my Dublin constituency that is severely constrained in its ability to capitalise on the tourism and agritourism potential by the gaps in broadband provision.

I noted the witnesses indicated in their report that the census figures show we are building less than one net new house for every seven new households formed. We hear anecdotally about the big corporations that can be challenged sometimes in terms of attracting workers because of the housing shortage, but in terms of the employees of the employers the witnesses represent, will they provide a narrative for where that is at currently in terms of the challenges specifically faced by indigenous companies? Let us forget the big guys and girls for the moment.