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

I thank all the witnesses for being here. I apologise for being a little late; I had a Topical Issue in the Dáil Chamber.

This is very interesting. When I read through the submissions yesterday, I noted that a fair amount of work is being done, but there is also a thread running through both the submissions. I do not think it is a reluctance on behalf of EI's client companies; I think there may be a misunderstanding. Let us compare the need to decarbonise etc., which is a very pressing and real one, with what happened with Brexit. It seemed like there was a flashing blue-light emergency with Brexit. Everybody was doing training, there were short courses, long courses and medium-sized courses, everybody was engaged and everybody was really focused. I am not suggesting for a moment that the people in this room are not focused. I am not suggesting either that EI's client companies are not interested. I genuinely believe they are, for the future of their business, for their kids, for all those good reasons. However, I am picking up that little thread of, if not disinterest, maybe reluctance. Will the witnesses talk to me a little about that? Is it the case that this is something everyone would like to do but it is not pressing, whereas Brexit was very pressing and that training had to happen? Do people think other people are doing a better job at this such that they leave it to them? Where is that coming from, and is there anything we can do in here? I am not sure we are often useful, but we do try. Is there anything that can be done from here? Is there anything that can be done to accelerate the level of interest and take away some of the fear businesses have of going too deep into this? Maybe they do not understand. Do the witnesses get my point? I am sorry for being a bit rambling.