Mr. Paul Sheridan:

On the construction industry's capacity in a broader sense, it is a problem-solving industry. When the industry sees a pipeline of work coming, no matter what type of work is involved, it will find a way to deliver it but it has to have that visibility. That is why we need the tracker. That is why we need to see when projects are going to hit site and to know that money is being put into the design and feasibility studies so that there is a continuous pipeline. Then there will be investment in attracting people, attracting more talent and so on.

The biggest issue we emphasise with all of our meetings with Government agencies on public works contracts, capacity and the NDP is around the export capacity of our own domestic construction industry and the importance of attracting people to build Irish infrastructure rather than UK infrastructure. Construction companies will not do that because they are balancing their books and it is too risky here. A number of our biggest members will not do public works here at all because it destroys their culture. They do not operate like that and they do business elsewhere. If the State could get some of those really good guys who are building for the biggest investors and companies across the world back into Ireland, that would solve the capacity issues.