Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am taking my five minutes.

I thank the witnesses for the work that they are doing. It is a challenging time for everyone, no matter what type of employment one is in. Much work has been done behind the scenes over the past few weeks in preparing for this.

My main question is to Mr. Parlon and it relates to the set-up in the construction industry. As I understand it, there is quite a high labour input in the construction industry in Ireland. Will this force or bring about changes in how we approach the construction industry? For instance, I was speaking to someone recently in the UK, where they are doing a lot of modular building in relation to apartments.

It is difficult to do that here because of a certain regulation that does not allow it. Are we going to see a change in the whole construction industry and how we approach building projects? We have to ensure health and safety at all times. Coming from a legal background, I have dealt with several cases where I have seen major tragedies on building sites which should not have occurred. They occurred because the necessary support was not there for the employee when the accident happened. We are trying to strike a balance between having enough people on site to do the work and making sure nobody is put in danger of Covid-19. From their experience in representing the industry, do the witnesses think there will be change? How can we protect jobs if that change does come?