Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree with previous speakers. We all have a fear of Brexit now. The construction sector is a major sector in the Irish economy that employs more than 100,000 people. It needs certainty as discussions over the withdrawal agreement and future relationship agreements are ongoing. Many people have said this to me on several occasions. It is about the uncertainty. In the meantime, the Government needs to give a commitment on the public capital programme encouraging local employment. We also need to look at building local authority housing because that is non-existent.

We can do more to attract our emigrants back to Ireland by adopting policies that are not there at the moment but that would be friendly to those wishing to return. Obviously, our housing crisis impacts greatly on these emigrants as well as foreign companies seeking to locate here from London. I recently had a conversation with a member of a prominent bank in London. While many of the bank's operations have moved here, ultimately, our lack of housing has pushed it to move more operations to Frankfurt instead of here. We need to look at the Frankfurt effort, our future and our competitiveness because that is what is happening. People will move because of the housing crisis and the lack of house building. Companies will go to Frankfurt and other areas where there is a very good supply of housing they can use. That is what it will boil down to.