Mr. Andrew Brownlee:

It is an opportunity as well as a risk. Hopefully, Ireland continuing to be in the EU will be an attractive proposition both for EU workers who are currently in the UK and also for UK nationals who are interested in opportunities in pharma, ICT, life sciences and so forth.

On Brexit-proofing, as stated earlier, we have been agreeing strategic performance agreements with ETBs. These are future focused planning agreements which can set out a vision of how the ETBs are going to provide for and meet the regions' needs over the next three years. There is a strong focus on Brexit around the regional ETBs in terms of how they are working with their further education and training and employer representative counterparts across the Border. That is a big part of the strategy.

On the Deputy's first point on how to get SMEs to engage in this and how to upskill the existing workforce, as Dr. Trant stated, we have the Skills to Advance policy initiative which is very important. Approximately 900,000 working people in Ireland have level 5 or below in terms of educational attainment and we must find a way to get to that group. Skills to Advance will offer access to further education and training free of charge. There is a target of 17,500 new people receiving training under that scheme over the next three years. That has to be a big part of the strategy. The education and training boards will be a big element in levering that because they are incredibly connected to their local communities and enterprise base. They are investing in dedicated employer engagement resources and they are building links with the SMEs. Over the next three or four years I hope we will see a much closer connectivity with SMEs that allows them to send their workforces into further education and training.