Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I mentioned how the systems for apprenticeships and so on work in Northern Ireland and Britain. Something we should all bear in mind every day we go about our work is the need to think of the all-Ireland context. We are too small an island to ignore what is happening only a few miles away from us. I live along the Border and represent two of the southern Ulster counties so I am always influenced by what is happening in my neighbourhood. In fairness to IBEC, it did wonderful work at the time of 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Fergal O'Brien and Danny McCoy presented at Oireachtas committees to outline what had happened since 1998 in the context of the development of the all-Ireland economy and the potential to grow it so it was much stronger. In training people for the economy and for society as well, and in the businesses Chambers Ireland represents, it is very important we are focused at all times on the all-Ireland potential of growing businesses and creating services, training and skills for our people as well.

We cannot have centres of excellence everywhere but there is a lot of merit in having services delivered locally as well, within reason. One of the great benefits of the colleges of further education is they were nearer to communities who may not gone on to education in the past or not gone past second level. Oftentimes it is up in Dublin or from my point of view it is in Dundalk, Sligo or wherever. Some families and young people may think that is too far away and they should not bother, so we always need to factor in the attraction, especially for people who may be only lukewarm about following up an apprenticeship, the value of a service based locally, provided all standards are followed.