Mr. Oliver Gilvarry:

One challenge that I will try to bring across this year is the new way of living and working. The Deputy made a point about employees' rights, whether collective wage bargaining or, as we referred to, minimum wage or mandatory sick pay. Labour was always mobile. As a result of the pandemic, we have the added dimension of the blended working environment. People do not need to be in the same jurisdiction as the office. We can even see that with today's hybrid meeting, with some of us physically present and some of us having dialled in.

It is important for Ireland to be not just a good place to work but also a good place to live. We want to attract highly skilled people to fill different roles. Part of that is about the offering. In the report, we have called for measures such as mandatory sick pay and auto-enrolment to be brought forward so that people look at Ireland as a location not just to work but also to live. Linked into the living issue are issues with infrastructure and childcare costs, among others. In the report, we have sought to balance that with costs for employers. It is a matter of balance. It cannot be a case of saying it is okay for employers if workers cannot be attracted. That applies across the range of skills. We talk about ICT and pharmaceuticals but this applies across the board. If there are high housing costs and there are not the appropriate protections in place for staff, it will not be possible to get people in, whether for the hospitality sector or at the high end. While we did not talk about collective bargaining, we are saying that the Government needs to consider balancing from both employee and employer perspectives and to have Ireland be both a good place to live and a good place to work.