Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will move on. I have a couple of questions. Dr. Quinn mentioned that the Action Plan for Jobs falls under the remit of Mr. Hegarty. The committee last year decided that it would travel around Ireland. We have undertaken a significant body of work on the cost of doing business and have had many engagements with stakeholders including IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, banks, Insurance Ireland, the Irish Farming Association, IFA, hoteliers, restaurant owners, shop owners and many others. We undertook a huge body of work and will finalise and launch our document in July. I am a Deputy who represents Waterford and was conscious that when the committee sits in Dublin, many of those who appear before it are Dublin-centric and more regional issues are not always addressed. To compensate for that, the committee sat in Waterford to deal with issues relating to the Action Plan for Jobs. The five county councils of the south east were represented by four cathaoirligh and a leas-chathaoirleach - one cathaoirleach was unavailable. The south east is coming from a very low base and, for example, its unemployment rate is always stubbornly approximately 2% above the national average. The area has not performed as well as many others. Does Mr. Hegarty have cohesive plans to identify potentially underperforming areas, rather than those which are overperforming? Is there a special focus in that regard? I do not refer solely to my area but, rather, the country generally because although areas of Limerick and Cork are doing extremely well, many areas in all constituencies are not performing as well. Is there a strategic focus on areas identified as not performing as well as others?

On the point made by Deputy Kelleher, the issues to the fore during our engagements on the cost of doing business were rates, insurance, the cost of finance and the lack of skills in the construction and food industries and, specifically, hotels and restaurants. That came up a lot.

While it may not come under the remit of the witnesses, I was struck by the manner in which outside factors influence what happens in this country. The collapse of Carillion led to the collapse of Sammon Contracting. I wish to discuss smaller contractors, the small and medium enterprises which may only have one, two or three employees and may be a family firm. Many smaller contractors are owed money by companies such as Sammon Contracting and Carillion but the chances of their receiving it are very slim. A business person who provided painting services is owed €58,000 and his company may not survive. Is the Department focusing on such smaller contractors who may end up going to the wall because they are owed sums such as €60,000 or €100,000?

The witnesses understand the point I am making in that regard. Is there a focus on that?

Finally, as far as I am aware, last year or the year before that the Department was focused on having data centres throughout Ireland and I believe it employed a company to examine that. Is there any update on that? It is important to the committee to see things moving outside the Dublin-centred area as well, and not just because we live in those areas. There is an overheating and the other areas of the country can act as release valve in respect of housing and quality of life.