Mr. Cormac Healy:

I might ask my colleague for the specific numbers. There is an ongoing recruitment effort by plant management in every company. We have undertaken initiatives with the Department of Social Protection. In one initiative, we ran regional job fairs throughout the country and the Department brought people from the live register whom it believed might have the requisite skills, etc. We are constantly engaged with local employment offices and social welfare offices as regards recruitment. We have also engaged with EURES and attended work fairs throughout Europe.

I accept the Senator's point that, as we hopefully come out of the pandemic, unemployment has increased. As we pointed out in our opening statement, though, we must see what the true level of unemployment is in the long term to determine what the availability is. We will continue to prioritise recruitment in Ireland and the EEA, but there are strong competitiveness issues. For example, it is a difficult and challenging working environment and may not be attractive to everyone. We also compete with the construction industry. When that takes off, there may be a draw from our sector. That is the reality that we must contend with, just as our industry does in most EU member states.

I might ask one of my colleagues for specific figures on those who have gone through a Skillnet programme and so on.