Mr. Martin D. Shanahan:

First, I am confident that it is having an impact. The premise of the Action Plan for Jobs is about making it easier for businesses to do business and for them in turn to create sustainable private-sector employment. If we look at the most recent figures available from the CSO, 33,000 jobs have created year-on-year to Q2 2013. We also see very small increases in the labour force during that time and very small increases in participation. That is against the background, obviously, of a significant unemployment issue and against the background that there are other factors that come into play, like emigration. However, it is a positive trend.

If we look within that, private-sector employment has driven that increase and is, in fact, entirely responsible for that increase because it is against a background of public sector jobs continuing to decline. So the trend directionally is absolutely right. There is other evidence to support its working, which is that the competitiveness ratings are improving. They are an indication of the environment for private-sector business.

Skills is one of the more significant issues that we are involved in and we manage and support the work of the expert group on future skills needs. We have detailed evidence and analysis of where we believe the shortages are currently and what the likely future shortages are. We work very closely with the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Social Protection in advising them of where we believe those skills shortages are. That includes the educational spectrum of what we should be doing at primary and secondary level, right up to third level institutions and universities. We also engage with those institutions directly where we can with the limited resources we have and advise them as to what courses we think are required and what curriculum is required. We bring the combined intelligence of what we can see in the broad macro-data together with the information we get from our agencies and their clients as to what their specific needs are.