Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all the delegations that have come here this morning to share their experiences and offer advice to us as policymakers. On this committee, our particular concern is regional and rural areas and how we can sustain livelihoods in those regions.

For the record, I acknowledge the work of Enterprise Ireland over the past number of years. According to the recorded figures for 2018, there are now 2.23 million people working in Ireland. It is the highest ever figure. I am conscious of the work of the city and county LEOs as well, supporting entrepreneurs and new businesses. Many such businesses started in the face of a harsh recession. It was a bounce back by amazing people supported by the State agencies and the LEOs. We should always acknowledge that when we can and I certainly want to do so here this morning.

There are new challenges now. With the employment levels where they are, quality of life, smarter working and sustainability are the challenges for Ireland and we have a role in this committee to try to devise new policies to address the issues the delegations have raised here this morning. I told some of them, on the way in, that often they are way ahead of the posse. Often we are in a bubble here in Leinster House dealing with retrospective issues, which we have to do, but the real vision often comes from outside. We are hearing it here today again and I want to acknowledge that, especially with the likes of Abodoo. We have had Grow Remote in here as well. These are people who have a vision for how our society should develop and where employment should go. It certainly can fit with the needs of modern families and work-life patterns.

I was interested to hear that talent heat maps of Wexford have been produced. Before we do anything in terms of policy, of course one needs to have evidence of where our assets and resources are and how we should best leverage those. Often the easy answers are right in front of our noses. Wexford has shown the way in terms of mapping out the talent that is available to it if a business wants to establish itself in Wexford, in smarter hubs or whatever. It is a good starting point for anyone. I take on board Ms Tierney's recommendation that we should have a national talent map. Recently, I was in discussions with a company that is looking at establishing in the south east in the financial services area. We met IDA Ireland representatives and the first thing they said was that they would have to do a skills analysis for the south east. I had a bit of an argument with them. I said that most of our graduates, unfortunately, have left the south east and are either in Dublin or elsewhere. I stated that the skills analysis should not only be of the south east. In fact, it should be of those all over the world because people want to move home. I was delighted to hear Ms Tierney repeat it here this morning. There is a mindset in officialdom. I acknowledge the great work IDA Ireland is doing but it more or less boxes off regions and looks at where the talent in a region is presently, whereas I believe it must have a far more outward looking view. I am only using the south east as an example because I am from the south east. I am from Waterford, which is one of the employment black spots in the country. It is one of the areas which has suffered the greatest brain drain. Our graduates qualify in Waterford but, unfortunately, leave the region. That happens right around the country. Often I have compared Dublin with an economic vortex that is sucking in our best resources.

We need to think of new ways to try and get those brains and those graduates - as Mr. Tobin said, that life - back into the regions. I certainly welcome the positive outlook that has been presented to us here this morning. It is not merely an outlook. There are real solutions being presented here. I visited Boxworks, a co-working location in Waterford. They have created a smart hub where hot desks or small offices are provided to any person, entity or body that wants to come in and work. They are sharing ideas and resources and building out. The good news is the second Boxworks office is opening in a few weeks in Waterford and it is doing exactly what the witnesses are talking about.

The evidence shows the entrepreneurs and the people are ahead of the policymakers. We need to catch up. How we do that, I believe, is the discussion we need to have here today.

Do we need to change our view on co-ordination overall? While I acknowledged the work of Enterprise Ireland at the start, should it have a specific department to consider how to connect the hubs and new ways of supporting entrepreneurs? I am aware it is doing this and its representatives will tell us it is but we need specific resources to attend to the new demands that exist. These include demands for smarter living, smarter travel, smarter work, co-operation and joining resources. There are examples. The delegates stated there are 200 hubs around Ireland. I mentioned two, in Waterford. We need to co-ordinate all of these and secure policy support and incentives. How do we do this better? If the witnesses were in our shoes, as policymakers, where would they believe real change is needed to bring about the gear shift that is required? Rather than looking at traditional ways of supporting employment, how can we engage with the employers to build their confidence? We need to build their confidence to show this is a new way of working and that they can trust their staff, perhaps using a stepped process. Reference was made to going to a co-working location first, perhaps on a part-time basis, and perhaps doing the rest from home. There is work to be done on how to build confidence among employers to show them they need not spend a fortune building offices in Dublin, with staff crazed by the cost of living and cost of rent, and that they can proceed in a different way. How can we package this concept and start selling it to employers?