Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That would be valuable.

Thousands of jobs were mentioned - of course, everyone's ears pricked up - but that figure was boiled down to 80 jobs at each port plus a benefit for its community, which does not exactly sound like thousands of jobs. What is the scope for jobs? Mr. Cunniffe will not be able to give us the exact numbers, but will he give us an idea of the potential and what we might be missing out on if we do not have a supply chain of apprenticeships? I have met members of the Connect Trade Union who are anxious to be involved in this area. It is new technology and they have an interest in ensuring that the jobs being created are not just jobs for the sake of jobs but are instead good union jobs with set minimum rates of pay and everything else that we associate with the trades. We can see where the 80 jobs will be but we cannot see where the benefits for the community will be as clearly. Will Mr. Cunniffe discuss this matter? What could we miss out on if we do not get the apprenticeship approvals in place and start that pipeline? It is proving difficult to attract workers because we are in the midst of an accommodation crisis, which presents challenges, so our best chance of progressing this work is to educate people who are already in Ireland. What could we miss out on if we were slow to get everything up and running?