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

I welcome the witnesses and I thank them for their presentations. It is fascinating to listen to what is going on. It is extraordinarily sophisticated, complicated, progressive and quite advanced. There have been great successes. I was looking at the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund's website yesterday. There have been 175 investments to an overall amount of €6 billion. It focuses on climate, housing infrastructure, food and agriculture, and indigenous business. These are the four major elements. We have looked at all of these because they impact on our work here. We have looked at offshore wind, for instance, because of the skill sets involved.

Several weeks ago Chambers Ireland, ISME and the Irish Exporters Association came before the committee. They were very concerned about housing workers and people who want to work in companies. I note that the ISIF is investing in housing. The investments made are all loans and the investment is made for a return. I am interested in quality-of-life issues also. Quality of life has a big bearing on attracting people to live in Ireland. I notice transport is one of the areas the ISIF invests in. Will Mr. Ashmore speak about whether the ISIF has a focus on quality-of-life issues? It is investing in urban regeneration in some areas. When people visit a town, village or city to consider an investment, very often the appearance of the place and how it looks and feels has an impact on whether they want to invest. Will Mr. Ashmore comment on this? It may be slightly off our issue. Many sporting clubs throughout the country are doing great work providing fantastic facilities for young people and not so young people. They are struggling to buy land. I contend that the quality-of-life issue is very important in balancing the attractiveness for people to come here, work here and stay here. Will Mr. Ashmore comment on this? Has the ISIF looked at this? It is probably outside its remit a little.