Mr. Sean Downey:

I can wrap up quickly on this. I have three simple messages that are a bit repetitive. The first is standardisation. In respect of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage’s guidance note that was sent out recently on the 1,500 units across 35 local authorities, there should be an A and B and that is it. The exact same two-bedroom apartment or three-bedroom house should be delivered in Carlow that is delivered in Leitrim. There is no reason somebody should be thinking about slightly different colour of tile or wall finish. The companies will call for capital expenditure investment, but if you create frameworks and give them certainty that they will get a certain number of units, they can look at building and scaling. They will not get money or be able to invest unless they know they will get orders. That is the lesson of Legal & General in the UK - the failure that just happened last week. It could not keep sustainable demand coming into the factory floor.

The last one is skills development. The Deputy asked the question and that is important. There are many people who want to work in these factories. They are almost all west of the Shannon. They are definitely outside the greater Dublin area. It is a brilliant opportunity for local employment for high-value skills and nice working conditions. People want to work there but it is important that we keep developing perhaps new trades and traineeships with the education and training boards, ETBs, in particular, that are all regionally focused, to give those people the skills that they need.