Mr. Ray English:

I will say a few words. It is worth noting that WorldSkills Ireland remains primarily a volunteer organisation from the competitors themselves who, after selection commit to training to the experts who we rely on to train to WorldSkills standards, often for up to 40 hours a week. All of that is all done on a voluntary basis. That training takes place in education and training boards, institutes of technology, and Technological University Dublin.

The basis of this team came from the 2019 Ireland Skills Live Competition, which was held in March in the RDS, as has been noted. That attracted 15,000 young people who came to look at the skills. A number of young people went to Kazan and many others did not. The support of the Higher Education Authority, SOLAS and industry partners, such as John Sisk & Son, in delivering Ireland Skills Live needs to be noted. That led to the great success that we saw in Kazan. It is important to note that it was each team member who gave us that overall tenth position. In any of the indices, Ireland came in the top 20 of the 63 countries that participated in Kazan.