Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am trying to break the issues down and put them in context. I am thinking of a small or medium business that cannot get the tradespeople and other people it needs to maximise its profitability. It would be helpful if it were able to fish from an all-island pool of apprentices and other workers. I am concerned about an imbalance in this regard. In the case of care homes, say, there is a requirement that staff are registered with CORU. Where people have trained in the North and obtained their academic qualifications there, that does not translate easily to the South, and vice versa. That is one factor. Another issue is access, such as in the case of a small business in Mayo or somewhere else in the west that is dependent on tourism for growth. There may not be bus and rail links up that side of the country. How important are such factors to small and medium enterprises and how important is it to have joined-up thinking in that regard?