John Clendennen (Offaly, Fine Gael)

I was at an event last week at a local secondary school, Coláiste Choilm, Tullamore. They had about 120 primary school students. They gave them four A4 pages, four A3 pages, a roll of masking tape and 2 m of string. They had a competition with awards to build the longest bridge and the best designed bridge . This was all an effort to try to instil the culture of STEM. We have done a lot of work in that space in County Offaly. I appreciate the work that Engineers Ireland does through the STEPS programme as well. We need to emphasise the importance of engineers engaging with and attending those sorts of events on the ground locally. They make a huge difference, particularly to the students and particularly now we are so busy with infrastructure development and construction moving at such a pace. There is a risk we forget about nurturing the next generation of talent. What is being done with the STEPS programme is important, but when there are calls from beyond, whether it is local authorities or schools, I ask that Engineers Ireland fulfil them whenever possible.

We all know about the need for housing. Obviously, the support through wastewater, electricity and power connections is vital.

If we are now looking at, say, 18 to 24 months for delivery of a housing project and our water and wastewater services are taking multiples of that, will we have housing delivery outpacing utilities and houses waiting almost like a new generation of ghost estates because we do not have the utilities? How will we reconfigure that pace and bring it into balance?