David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming here this morning and giving a very interesting and timely presentation. The witnesses mentioned that €10 million has been allocated to supporting the IDA Ireland regional property programme and seven advanced building solutions have already been put in place. Could the witnesses say a bit more about those? Where are they located and what is being done? Am I to take it that this €10 million will support more of these advanced building solutions? Perhaps the witnesses could discuss the ambitions of this initiative.

I see that the Covid-19 online retail scheme is now closed. Can the witnesses say when the new call for applications will be made? Has any analysis of the trading online voucher been carried out? What kinds of businesses has it served and how successful has it been? Does it need to be tweaked in any way? Are the witnesses satisfied that businesses are aware of its existence? I ask the witnesses to pass my thanks to those managing the call centres. Several companies that have contacted me were not aware of this initiative. I told them about it, they made contact and the outcomes have been very positive. One company managed to hold onto all of its employees because of the assistance and information it received. Those managing the company were not aware of this possibility until I told them about it. Perhaps something should be done about that.

There is a lot of talk about buying Irish at the moment. What can be done to encourage people, and particularly State agencies and Government Departments, to purchase Irish products? Last night I got a report from one company that had been doing business with a certain State agency. The company has now been told that the agency has decided to purchase abroad and leave it in the lurch. I can provide more details on that if the witnesses want. I am anxious to encourage our own agencies to buy Irish. I know that there are procurement issues.

A lot of company assessments were carried out from July to September, especially for the purposes of the employment wage subsidy scheme. We have now entered a new phase of lockdown. Companies did well when they opened up in July, August and September. They now find they are locked down again. Are there any plans to change the schemes to take account of what will happen in the next weeks or months? It has been suggested that we should analyse the period from October to next March rather than from July to December 2020.

I think that is it. I thank the witnesses.