Tony McCormack (Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I thank for Mr. Sweeney and Mr. Brady for coming in and for their opening statement. I agree with most of what they said. Infrastructure is highly important. There are many areas where it needs to be improved, no more than in planning. As mentioned, there are many bottlenecks and hold-ups under planning legislation, and what is happening in councils and in An Bord Pleanála and what have you. We need to quicken that up. That has been talked about at length.

Trying to attract people from our diaspora in other countries was mentioned. I am sure the witnesses have had round-table discussions with their members. Those discussions have probably borne fruit in how we attract those people back into the country. How do they think we will fill the deficit in the number of planners we have? We need more. Where do they think that will come from?

If we look at what is happening around the world with wars and what have you, everybody else will be looking for critical goods to build their infrastructure afterwards. Where does that leave us as a country? What do we need to be importing now in order that we will not be left short of it in the future?

I have a couple of questions on digital infrastructure. Is Ireland's broadband roll-out under the national broadband plan meeting the needs of businesses and rural areas? How can Ireland position itself as a digital infrastructure leader in Europe? What infrastructure is needed to support AI, big data and smart industry initiatives? What concerns does IBEC have regarding cybersecurity infrastructure at a national level? There is a lot in that. The representatives will probably not get to it in the time we have. Will they hop on just some of them to give me some answers?