Mr. Padraig Boland:

From the education and training board, ETB, perspective, there is a two-pronged focus in terms of traineeships and upskilling. Part of that is looking at those who are involved or employed in Bord na Móna. The other part is looking at keeping jobs in the locality, because in counties such as Offaly, 93% of our active enterprises have ten or fewer employees. It is a case of recognising the indigenous and small scale and building our strengths. We are looking to harness in some way the entrepreneurial flair that existed in Bord na Móna from the early days when the German and Russian machines came in and had to be modified by men with no education who thought they had little skill, and to build on that entrepreneurial skill and look at enterprise development as a traineeship and a model we could work on.

The other focus is to work with the Department, my colleague, Ms Morgan, the digital hubs, shared working spaces in the midlands, and to look at remote working, with people maybe being able to stay in the midlands. It is not a case of looking at our local employers taking on one extra employee, which is a 10% increase for them, if that is the rate, but looking at those work placeless companies, as it were, where a person can be working for someone in America or Australia or wherever else and based in the rural communities. That person would be living in the communities and keeping the schools and shops open. We are trying that two-pronged approach.